Paradise Lost
by GleeGeneration23
Summary: Rumplestilskin didn't just take Killian Jones hand that day. He took something a bit more important. His daughter. As Emma Swan pulls into Storybrooke she meets the enigmatic Mr Gold and his teenage daughter, all the while someone far away is hoping for revenge. Captain Swan. Daddy Killian. AU. All Seasons.
1. Paradise Lost

**Hi, so I said I'd be back and I am. I've given this fandom a good clean break for a couple of months and I'm back with a new story. This is a new one for me and as I re-watched Season 2 of OUAT (which without question is the one season that never fails to make me cry) and I thought (because i'm sadistic) what would really bring on the Killian angst combined with a Daddy Killian story which I always love and I came up with this plot. I chose a girl for the situation because while writing the Pirate's Son I learnt I really wanted to try writing from A. a teenager's perspective and B. a girl's perspective and then over the course of three months and a lengthy vacation away from the internet this little plot bunny was born and raised.**

 **If you guys want more then let me know. I intend to let this story progress over the six seasons but several episodes will be condensed into one chapter for simplicity.**

 **I didn't have a face cast in mind when it came to writing the character of Giselle/Scarlett but looking back I think Crystal Reed is probably the best fit.**

 **Also some things in this story will be AU especially considering age so bear that in mind. Also grammar and spelling are not my strongest suit so for any new readers who don't know me then I apologise.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine except Giselle/Scarlett.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **The title of this story and the quote from the poem Paradise Lost by John Milton which is a tribute to my A Level English Class so...**

 **The chapters will change from moments in the Enchanted Forest and moments in Storybrooke. The first part of this story also covers mostly Gold/Giselle/Scarlett bonding, not much Killian until later on.**

 **Let me know what you think. **

* * *

Paradise Lost

Rumplestilskin didn't just take Killian Jones hand that day. He took something a bit more important. His daughter. As Emma Swan pulls into Storybrooke she meets the enigmatic Mr Gold and his teenage daughter, all the while someone far away is hoping for revenge. Captain Swan. Daddy Killian. AU.

Chapter 1-Paradise Lost

* * *

 ** _The infernal serpent; he it was, whose guile,  
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived  
The mother of mankind._** **(Paradise Lost) **

The Jolly Roger

The ship was continually crowed. Rumplestilskin resisted the urge to smirk as he noticed that nearly all of them avoided looking at him instead preferring to duck around him and scuttle away.

There was still a part of him, after so many years as the 'Dark One' that couldn't believe that Milah had left him and Bae to be with...well...a _pirate._

In truth it hurt a little. He had tried so hard to be a good husband and father, to provide some sort of life for his family even with his leg and she had left him and their son without a moment's thought to live on a ship so she could spread her legs for a rum soaked pirate with a leering smile that had once called him a coward.

"Well...well" he said allowing himself a little giggle because...irony...

"Seems like you finally found the family you could never have with me"

Milah scoffed rolled her eyes and walked back over to her lover. Rumplestilskin resisted the urge to just end it all now. As much as the thought of killing one of them warmed him (and in all honestly he knew that that was what he was going to do) he wanted to drag it out, to make Milah and her Pirate feel as much pain and humiliation as he had done.

Milah held out the bean. The one thing that would ensure he had a fighting shot of finding his son again. But before he could grab it with grasping fingers she threw it to the pirate who caught it with an almost lazy graceful ease that made him grit his teeth in irritation.

Well Rumple thought grimly. If Milah wanted to play _that_ game then he was more than capable of playing it with her. He had the one thing that he knew...that he _knew_ that would break even her perfectly controlled mask.

"Just one question" he said keeping his voice quiet so Milah could no doubt hear the menace creeping through.

"How could you leave Bae?"

She didn't flinch at that though Rumple could see her forcibly try to stop it. He knew Milah like a book. It was one of those things about her, she was always easy to read.

He would have laughed at Milah's vain excuses, would have taken glee at the look on her face as she tried to justify abandoning her son but the moment was ruined when a shrill piercing cry shattered the suddenly still air.

He didn't see Milah's sudden look of apprehension and fear and the way that the Pirate's hand seemed to slide down to the knife tucked in his belt.

The rage was too much. Milah it seemed had not only replaced him with some criminal dripping in alcohol but she had also had the gall to replace their son. To replace Bae.

It was no obstacle to Rumple, to slam his hand through his former wife's chest and find the red organ that was her traitorous heart and tear it from her. He didn't take any enjoyment from the cries of the pirate as he usually would. For a long time in his long life he saw pure red, he was alive with the desire to kill, the grief of losing Bae intensified when he heard the cry of Milah's other child.

He saw her fall and felt the dust running through his fingers but could spare no thought other than the _need_ to _hurt_ the Pirate as much as he had hurt him. The baby perhaps realising that it's mother was dead had stopped crying.

With a wave of his fingers the child appeared in his arms. It took Rumple a second to adjust to the weight of having a baby in his arms. It had been so long since he'd had a child that small.

The baby was in it's own way quiet pretty. It was clearly the Pirate's daughter with his exact shade of dark hair a dusting on her head. Rumple could tell it was a girl due to the pink edging around the blanket. It was probably bought. He didn't hold out much stock on Milah's sentimentality. Her eyes however were the exact shade of his ex-wife's and Rumple wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She wasn't crying anymore she was watching him with a slightly interested expression as if she was curious about who this stranger was holding here.

"Let her go" said a rough voice from the corner. Oh yes, the Pirate, Rumple had almost forgotten him while he was busy contemplating what to do with his child. He cast him a glance. Honestly, he still had the bean in his hand and with another wave Rumple simply removed it. The Pirate let out a howl of pain.

"I want you to suffer alive like I did" Rumple hissed low and soft and in the most dangerous way he could imagine.

 _Like I still do._

"I want you to know loss in the most painful way imaginable dearie"

 _Like I do every second of every day._

The Pirate was grasping on the floor for a weapon as Rumple took a step back. His one remaining hand found a hook from the ships ropes and Rumple couldn't help but let out a truly devilish giggle when he saw it.

"Killing me is going to take a lot more than that dearie" he said truthfully. How had he ever been hurt by this man? How the tables had turned indeed from the cocky, arrogant man who had mocked him and taunted the very idea of him telling his boy that his mother was gone.

Fortune's Wheel at its finest.

The man looked at him then his whole body shaking with pain. "Even demons can be killed, I _will_ find a way"

"Good Luck" Rumple said grinning "Here" he said clutching the baby to him closer. "You can use your child as your incentive, if you care"

The Pirate lunged then his dark eyes filled with agony but Rumple was past caring when this man had brought about the destruction of his family. He disappeared for good leaving Milah lying on the floor crumpled like a little doll and the baby in his arms blinking up at him as if nothing could faze her.

He heard a word as he appeared fully at his castle, shouted in much the same tone that he had once a long time ago shouted Bae's name.

The child's name was Giselle.

* * *

Storybrooke

Scarlett Gold had not had a great day. She had been forced out of bed at the crack of seven thirty, forced herself to have a shower and resisted the urge to go back to bed, had managed to find a semi-clean skirt from the hamper and had then been forced out into the cold morning light all in order to go to school.

It wasn't that she didn't like school. Scarlett was a smart kid as she was constantly told. It's just that Tuesday morning's generally consisted of Math, Chemistry and Physics and Scarlett personally thought three in one morning was a cruel and unusual punishment.

By the time she had gotten home it had started to drizzle and she half collapsed in front of the TV with a cup of the 'good' tea and the intention of never moving again.

Scarlett Gold was a pretty girl with long black hair that hung past her shoulder blades and was generally messy. It was straight most of the time but long layers had given it an untameable look. She had dark eyes, high cheekbones and clear skin.

Once at home she changed into a pair of black leggings and found a grey jumper and set about finding something to eat. Her father wouldn't be back for at least three more hours as he was collecting rent and therefore Scarlett was cooking for herself tonight a task that generally yielded disastrous results.

Scarlett's father was a man by the name of Mr Gold. He owned the entire town and collected rent with a vengeance. Half of the town was terrified of him and that lead to the other half being terrified of Scarlett fearing that their families would be evicted should they slight her.

Scarlett for the most part didn't let it bug her. Her Dad was her Dad and she didn't need anyone telling her any different. Besides...she was fine being a loner anyway.

They had lived in Storybrooke their whole lives. The town was tiny and everyone knew everyone. The only people that didn't irritate Scarlett on principal was the owner of the dinner Widow Lucas (who gave Scarlett a discount on tea whenever she felt generous) her granddaughter Ruby who never ceased to make Scarlett smile, and Henry, the ten year old son of the Mayor who like Scarlett was adopted.

And still with all of this Scarlett had never felt the urge to ask her father who her mother or biological father was. She was happy with her life for the most part and as she settled down to eat pasta her Dad had premade she was happy. Nothing whatsoever could unsettle her life right now.

Her Dad came home an hour later than when he said he was. Scarlett was just in the process of brushing her teeth when he came up the stairs. There was a look on his face that made her pause unease prickling at the back of her neck.

"Everything ok?" she asked padding into his room as he left his stick against the wall.

Her Dad gave a jump as if he was interrupted for the first time.

He gave Scarlett a long look as if he was seeing her differently and she resisted the urge to squirm with difficulty.

"Fine sweetheart" he said finally. "Just met an interesting woman tonight. It appears young Mister Mills has gone and found his biological birth mother"

Scarlett didn't say anything. This was no news to her. One of the teachers at their school (the High School and Elementary children were kept separate but word still got around in a town as small as theirs) had given Henry a book of old fairy tales and he had been obsessed with finding his birth mother ever since.

"She's staying?" she said finally. She had never known anyone to come from outside Storybrooke. Her Dad nodded. And then just like that seemed to snap himself out of whatever mood he was in.

"I'm not all that hungry tonight sweetheart, I'm tired. I had three people shout at me and one of the nuns tried to curse me...irritating things, I'll talk more in the morning but for now I just want to get some sleep"

Scarlett nodded. This wasn't unusual. Rent days were always contemplative for her father and she was used to leaving him alone when he got in one of those moods.

"Goodnight" she said shutting the door behind her.

She slipped into her room pausing as that feeling of unease came back. She slipped into bed pulling the covers around her and wondering why she felt cold. What was it about Henry's birth mother coming here that made her feel like this? What was it that made her think that her whole life had been leading up to this point and that after tonight nothing would be the same?

Scarlett drifted off that night into an light sleep, her sleep was filled of a ship sailing away on some distant waters and when she woke up it was to no memories of the dream and to the sight of the Clock Tower chiming away for the first time since Scarlett could remember.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-(Hopefully there will be one)-Emma Swan enters Storybrooke, we see Giselle's childhood (briefly) and events of a few episodes leading up into Season 1. **


	2. Time Has Come Today

**Hi so here is another chapter, I've fleshed out the first season and I expect it to be eight chapters, there are going to be several episodes condensed into each chapter especially in Season 1 which will like the episodes half in the past and half in Storybrooke. Killian will be making his appearance in Season 2.**

 **Thank you to all who have favoured and followed this story and those who have reviewed. I have missed writing Once Upon A Time Fanfiction and I am enjoying planning out this story and Giselle's/Scarlett's relationships.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine but Giselle/Scarlett**

 **Please Read and Review and let me know what you think of this next, new chapter.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Rumplestilskin didn't just take Killian Jones hand that day. He took something a bit more important. His daughter. As Emma Swan pulls into Storybrooke she meets the enigmatic Mr Gold and his teenage daughter, all the while someone far away is hoping for revenge. Captain Swan. Daddy Killian. AU.

Chapter 2-Time Has Come Today

* * *

 _ **Everything's A Story.**_

 _ **You Are A Story.**_

 _ **I Am A Story.**_ **(Francis Hodgson Burnett)**

The Enchanted Forest. Dark Castle.

It took Rumplestilskin a minute to realise that kidnapping Hook's child was probably not the best thing to do. So focused was he on breaking the pirate's spirit, of punishing Milah for her betrayal of both him and their son, that he hadn't comprehended that now there was a baby in his arms. Apparently magic didn't turn on the water works but he remembered Bae and knew it was only a matter of time before the girl started to bawl.

Hell he didn't have time for another child. And if the pirate did try something (and with one hand he'd be amazed) then it wouldn't do any good to have the child in the castle. Especially not with Regina popping in like a demented fairy practically salivating for a weakness or a weapon to use in her plots against Snow White.

If he could keep his access to the child to once a week he could slowly make sure that she didn't grow up hero worshiping the rum soaked toy boy her mother had thrown her other child away for, and he could do this without getting to attached. He couldn't kill the baby. There were somethings that even he couldn't do and she was Bae's sister at the end of the day. His son wouldn't take too kindly to that.

There was another solution however. There was a peasant girl, a woman now come to think of it that owed him a long standing favour for _removing_ her abusive husband. She was set up in her own cottage not too far away and had no children due to her husband's abusive ways.

With a wave of his hand he had the girl brought to him with an ease that he knew Regina had never been able to do. She was still young about twenty and she paled but didn't tremble when she caught sight of him.

"Rosanna" he said remembering the name from memory. "This is...err..." oh what was the point in changing names now? "Giselle, she came into my possession via a deal and in order to pay your debt you will look after her"

Rosanna didn't even flinch when he handed the baby to her. The baby whimpered but Rosanna was already rocking her. Good. Rumple didn't have the patience to deal with crying infants on top of everything else he had to do today.

"I will pay you an allowance for the child" he said feeling generous. "She can live in your cottage and once a week I want to see her to make sure she lives up to her investment"

Rosanna was barely listening to him. "Yes Dark One" she said her eyes on the baby's face. "And her last name?"

"Jones" he said the distaste plain as day. "Giselle Jones. Make sure she knows her mother was a whore and her father was a kidnapper and murderer"

Rosanna shot him a look from her blue eyes. "You want her to know she's adopted?"

"Yes" Rumple said viciously. He may as well stick the knife in while he had the chance. "Don't tell her she's part of a deal but tell her the rest"

Rosanna nodded, she was apparently smart enough not to ask questions and Rumple was glad. "I will give you all you need to educate her to a decent level" he said feeling rather grand, he had never been able to do that with his son and he didn't think Milah would have made a good teacher either.

Rosanna nodded again her eyes on the child again.

"All you need will be waiting for you when you get home" Rumple said turning to sit down. "Spread the word to the village that she is an orphan you have adopted as your own" no need in giving Regina any ammunition. Rosanna bobbed a curtsey and in a flash she was gone.

Gods Rumplestilskin thought pensively staring into the fire. He didn't need the gift of foresight to tell him that leaving both this child and her father alive was going to kick him in the behind eventually.

* * *

Storybrooke

The next day Scarlett for once woke up early. For a moment she wondered why then she realised that the clock was chiming. For as long as Scarlett had lived in Storybrooke which she supposed was her whole life she had never heard the clock chime.

She staggered out of bed and got dressed deciding that her hair was today untameable and tucking it into a knot on the top of her head. Her Dad was already in the kitchen listening to the clock chimes with a satisfied smug smirk on his face.

"You're happy" Scarlett said rummaging around in the cookie jar for something to eat.

"Nice try" her Dad said looking at the cookie. "And why is your skirt so short?" he eyed it with distaste. Scarlett rolled her eyes.

"When did the clock start working again, oh life is full of questions" she snarked.

"Funny" her Dad deadpanned. "Last night apparently"

"I'm gonna go get a coffee from Granny's before I go back to hell" Scarlett said grinning "Are you gonna be home tonight?"

"I think so" her Dad said still staring out the window. "I don't foresee any complications but the Mayor is..."

"A bitch" Scarlett finished for him. Her Dad snorted before he covered himself. "Well..." he said smirking again. "That's a polite word for Regina in the long run"

Scarlett blinked wondering how they had gone off tangent again before she decided it was too early and she was too deprived of Granny's new Pumpkin Spice Latte's and peanut butter cookies to care. She grabbed her bag of the counter and forced her battered combat boots on. They were old, black and clunky but Scarlett loved them.

"See ya tonight" she said and her Dad nodded curling one hand around hers as his own way of goodbye.

* * *

Scarlett forced herself out the house and down Main Street. The street was much the same. Miss Blanchard was walking down the street lost in thought, Doctor Hopper was walking his dog and Ruby was once again dressed inappropriately.

She entered and was immediately accosted by something small, loud and smelling distinctly of cocoa. Ah. Henry.

Henry Mills was like Scarlett in some ways. They were both adopted and both had been raised by single adoptive parents. The only difference between the two other than age and family was the fact that Henry had made it clear he wanted to find his birth family. Scarlett who had babysat Henry a few summers back had found herself badgered with more and more questions about why she didn't want to know.

Henry was a kid Scarlett knew but the questions had stung a little. She heard now that he was obsessed with some storybook filled with the old fashioned fairy tales. Scarlett wasn't surprised. Since the new school year had started she hadn't been able to babysit but she knew that the boy had one hell of an overactive imagination.

"Hiya Scarlett" Henry said all breathless and pink in the face. Scarlett couldn't help but smile back despite the fact that she was sleep deprived and in desperate need of some decent caffeine.

"Hey Henry" she said smiling, that was when she got a good look at the woman that was sat with him.

So this was Henry's birth mother.

She was as unlike Henry in the looks department as it was possible to be. She had long blonde hair and a closed off sort of face as if she was a woman that was too used to disappointment to hope for anything anymore. They sized each other up a little and Scarlett paused something flashing.

Had she stood in the hall of some great castle or whatnot and sized up another woman as if she was a threat to something important?

But as soon as the...well...whatever it was came it was gone.

"Emma...Emma Swan" said the woman holding out her hand. Scarlett took it after a beat. "Scarlett...Scarlett Gold" she said finally.

"Mr Gold's kid?" she inquired and Scarlett nodded once.

"You wanna join us Scarlett?" Henry said practically shining with excitement. "I haven't found you yet maybe you can help?"

Scarlett blinked. She was just about to wonder if Henry had, had too much sugar when Emma explained.

"Henry believes his storybook is real" she said with a look that Scarlett knew immediately as she too didn't know how to handle this particular minefield.

"The town are it's characters" Henry interjected. "I've found everyone except you, you don't remember anything do you?" he asked suddenly suspicious.

Casting the dream and whatever had happened a few minutes ago to the back of her mind Scarlett shrugged. "Sorry kiddo I don't" she said grinning. "If you find me let me know but I'm pretty sure I've always been me"

Henry frowned turning back to the pages in a desperate attempt to prove her wrong.

Scarlett decided that she really needed that coffee now.

While she was adding her sugar she was aware that Emma Swan was watching her. Henry was still at the table.

"Sorry about that" she said quietly. "He thinks this town is cursed and his mother is the Evil Queen and I'm some sort of Saviour"

Scarlett paused. "The Regina bits believable" she said shortly and Emma's mouth twitched. "Don't know anything about any curses. When I babysat him all he wanted to know about was why I didn't want to find my adoptive parents"

Emma started. "You were adopted?" she asked quietly and Scarlett nodded. "I think my biological father was some sort of criminal" she said biting her lip. "I think he might have got my Mom..." she gestured and then shrugged furious and embarrassed in spades that she'd admitted that much in front of a stranger. Fortunately Emma didn't press just nodded.

Scarlett couldn't remember how she found out that nugget of information and it wasn't something you brought up around dinner.

"It was nice to meet you" she said finally and to her surprise she meant it. It had been nice to meet Emma.

Emma nodded letting her pass and as Scarlett stepped out into the cold clear air she couldn't help but wonder if Emma Swan planned on staying in Storybrooke. She couldn't help but wonder what these strange dreams and flashes of whatever it was were about. She couldn't help but ask herself as she weaved her way through the town to the school, why she had divulged so much to a complete stranger.

Scarlett's worries about Emma Swan were settled a few days later when a mine collapse and Henry nearly getting himself killed had told the town that Emma Swan was the new deputy.

Something was happening of that Scarlett was sure of because her Dad had never looked this revived. He had never spent so much time in his workshop as he had before and while his outwards attitude to Scarlett had never changed, while he still told her he loved her and hugged her when she came home from school, he had never looked at Scarlett as if he was half calculating and half wondering what kind of secrets she was hiding from him.

Whenever Scarlett fell asleep she dreamt of an old fashioned kind of ship in the water and a castle filled with books and whenever she saw the ship she saw a man dressed in black at it wheel but she always seemed to wake up before she could see his face or the expression that now seemed permanently carved on his features.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Scarlett gets involved in Henry's plan to free Storybrooke from the 'Curse' as Emma settles into Storybrooke meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest, Giselle grows up in the shadow of the Dark One.**

 **Let me know what you think **


	3. A Death In The 'Family'

**Hi so here is another chapter, this one covers a lot of episodes up until Graham's death. In the Enchanted Forest we see Giselle's life, how Rumple did raise her sort of but kept her secret so that Regina wouldn't find out (or Hook)**

 **The part about Hook's story is guesswork. He's not in the first season so therefore not in the book but I thought like the Saviour story it could have been removed, and we know the Dark One is all powerful so...make of that what you will...**

 **And already the foundations are being laid for the first time Killian and his daughter meet.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine but Giselle/Scarlett.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 3-A Death In The 'Family'

Scarlett gets involved with Henry's plans to free the town from the 'Curse' as Emma settles down into Storybrooke, meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest, Giselle grows up in the shadow of the Dark One.

* * *

 ** _Imagination is more important than knowledge._**

 ** _Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world._** **(Albert Einstein) **

Storybrooke

Scarlett hadn't attempted to get involved in Henry's overactive imagination. In fact as far as Scarlett was concerned while she loved Henry like an annoying little brother she didn't want to have much to do with she hadn't intended to read through the book that damn teacher had given to him.

She had only walked into Granny's on a Saturday in order to pick up a breakfast sandwich and a takeout order of her favourite Pumpkin Spice Latte only to see Henry Mills sat at the table by the window pouring over the book and (thankfully) devoid of both his mothers.

"Hey Scarlett" he said smiling at her when as she tried (discreetly) to move past him praying her clumpy favourite black boots didn't make too much noise. "Hey Henry" she said deciding to humour him despite the fact that the boy was pouring over a book that she felt was rather dangerous to someone's imagination.

"I'm trying to find you" he said gesturing to the open pages of the book. "But I can't" he paused looking so frustrated that Scarlett couldn't help but feel both irritated with the woman that had set Henry on the path which she knew would only lead to heartbreak and warmth that the younger boy was taking this so seriously.

"You found my Dad yet?" she asked deciding to humour him.

Henry frowned looking suddenly, rather nervous. "Yes" he said finally. "I think he might be Rumplestilskin" he caught Scarlett's expression. "He's the man pulling the strings"

Scarlett nodded thoughtfully. That did seem right after all.

"Sounds about right" she said shrugging. If Henry was to believe after all.

"I've found most of the people in town in the book" Henry said grinning. "I mean there are some people that I haven't found such as Pinocchio and...Well...Captain Hook's missing as well"

"Captain Hook?" Scarlett asked interest gaining despite her intention to ignore Henry's insane view that the town was cursed into an enteral timeless slump.

"Yeah, there's mentions of him all over the book, with Mo...The Evil Queen, and I think he's a footnote in the Rumplestilskin story but I..." he lowered his voice and Scarlett slipped into the seat next to him intrigued despite himself. "I think the book may have been tampered with. I know that the story of my Mom is gone. The Saviour storyline is safe but Scarlett..." he shook his head. "I think that someone has been messing with Captain Hook's story. Like it was there but then it was gone"

Scarlett blinked before he tucked her hand under Henry's sleeve. "I don't think that my father hates Captain Hook" she said shaking her head so that her dark curls flew over her shoulder. She patted Henry on the arm again. "I suppose that you haven't found me yet" she said grinning and taking a sip of her coffee.

"No" Henry said looking utterly put out. "I think you might be tied in with your Dad and the Rumplestilskin story but then again there is no mention of you..." he shot Scarlett a look as if he was suspecting her to be upset about the fact that she wasn't in some storybook about fairy tale characters.

"Oh" Scarlett replied. Humouring Henry was the best policy she decided.

She decided eventually to say goodbye to the boy choosing to leave the warmth of Granny's for the cold outside. As she left she saw the Sherriff pass Emma Swan a coffee and a bear claw and the woman laugh as he did so tossing back her hair so that it fell over her back in golden waves.

They didn't notice Scarlett and Scarlett was fine with that.

She still couldn't shake of what Henry had said about Captain Hook and Rumplestilskin though.

Captain Hook.

She took another mouthful of coffee, tucked her old brown leather jacket around her elbow sleeved, knee length black dress and tights and wide brown belt, and decided to go in search of a quiet place near the lake where she could eat breakfast in peace.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Dark Castle.

Giselle had grown up in the small cottage on the outskirts of the small village that fell under the Dark One's rule. Her small bedroom was above the main floor of the cottage and had a small window in which she could open the shutters and see the stars at night.

Her bed was tucked under the window. Her mattress was soft and her blankets were all velvet trimmed in fur a far cry from the other people in the village. In truth she didn't know about the other people in the village because she had never met them. Giselle was kept far away from the village people and Rosanna the maid who looked at her always went into town to get food and books.

For a moment the girl just lay there, her soft cotton nightdress soaking in the warmth from the blankets as she stared blankly at the wooden ceiling. For a second the thirteen year old didn't move and then finally smelling the warm smell of porridge on the fire. She moved down the small wooden ladder bare feet pattering on the ground till she got the wooden chest that held her clothes.

Giselle changed from her nightdress tucking it into the chest and ran a soft rag with hot water (carefully filled by Rosanna) over her body and then reached for the dress that was at the top of the pile. It was a dark purple and fell simply over her body held into place with a tight silver band. The sleeves were edged in silver as well but Giselle still smiled when she found her dark boots the leather soft and still smooth despite the fact that they were old and well worn. She caught sight of her expression in the mirror. Her long hair was messy and she ran a brush through it wincing. She reached for a band and tied it loosely into a bun at the back of her neck though strands would be falling loose probably.

Rosanna was spooning porridge into the warm wooden bowl. "Thank you" Giselle said sitting down on the wooden benches at the wooden table. She sat straight backed, head held up high. There was freshly baked bread on the table, the white kind and she smoothed warm butter over a slice and grabbed a piece of thick smoky bacon. Rosanna smiled at her passing her the honey and she spooned some into the porridge and into her tea at the same time.

"You know what time you will leave?" Rosanna asked sitting down opposite her and stirring a lump of sugar into her tea. Giselle nodded. Today was Friday and they responded in just the same formal way. "I'll pack a bag, when the carriage arrives as usual and then I will leave Sunday night as I always do"

Rosanna nodded. "I'll have something warm waiting for you like always" she said smiling.

Giselle nodded swallowing a spoonful of porridge. She chewed her bacon and bread and then when breakfast was finished stood to help Rosanna clear away the simple but clean breakfast. Rosanna waved her away and Giselle took that as an indication to pack her bags for the weekend.

She choose three more gowns. A green one the shade of emeralds, a pale butter yellow one and a dark red one edged in black for spare. Into her bag went a small pair of high shoes, a selection of books and various accessories and hair clips.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday was always different to Giselle. Giselle spent the weekend at the Dark Castle with her de-facto father. Rumplestilskin, commonly known as the Dark One.

The weekend was the only time that the two of them spent time together. The rest of the time Giselle was isolated with Rosanna. She had her books and her lessons but she was for all intents and purposes alone. This was because (as she was told) the fact that she was the Dark One's adopted daughter and ward was to remain a secret.

Giselle had no idea beyond what vague descriptions her father would give her about her biological parents. Rosanna had told her once that her birth father had been a criminal that had stolen her mother away from her son (Giselle's half-brother and the son of her adoptive father) and then killed her.

Her mother. Well. Her father wouldn't go into detail about that but Giselle was under the assumption that her mother must have done something really bad in order to make her father's magic shatter a tea set the one time she asked why she had left Giselle's brother.

Giselle was safe because of her adoptive father. He had told her ever since she was a little girl that her biological father had intentions to not only kill her mother but her brother (who was missing due to a magical accident, apparently) and herself as well. Her birth father was apparently a man with no morals or sense of goodness and out of a sense of duty for her mother he had saved Giselle from certain death.

The Dark One made a surprisingly good guardian Giselle thought. The carriage pulled up being used by magic and Giselle tucked her grey cloak lined with fur around her, said goodbye to Rosanna and climbed into the carriage.

Giselle she knew, had never wanted for nothing. Well. She thought sardonically nothing material. She had been wonderfully clothed and fed and her education was up to date. She could read and write, speak three different languages of this realm fluently and her father had taught her how to read, speak and write strange languages from other realms and to read the magical runes. She knew how to brew herbs and make medicine from Rosanna and she could calculate a small kingdom's allowance easily. She knew how to plan ceremonies and the geography and history of the Enchanted Forest and all the other realms. She knew all about the Seas and whatever mysteries were out there in the other realms as much as her father did. The only thing she didn't know about was her real family and the events surrounding their death.

However...well...Giselle pondered the thought that had plagued her for nearly thirteen years. Why would her father lie about something like this?

The carriage stopped at the gates, the gates swinging open with magic and the carriage pulling to a stop in front of the door which magically swung open. Giselle left the carriage and clutching her bag entered the castle.

The doors swung shut just like they always did. She slowly walked up the stairs and into the main drawing room.

Her father, adopted father, Rumplestilskin, The Dark One to go by his many titles was sat at his spinning wheel. He was dressed as finely as ever and even though he didn't look up when she entered the room she knew from experience that he knew that she was there.

She bobbed a curtsey like Rosanna had taught her to do since she was a little girl. She had copied the gesture from the maid and only when she rose a little she saw tea had appeared on the table.

"Good evening father" she said moving towards the table and pouring two cups of tea. She added honey and sugar to her own cup and then sugar to her fathers and passed it to him as he stood up from the stool.

"Giselle" he said warmly holding out his arms. Giselle dropped her tea cup and moved into them. The hug was short and sweet and when she pulled back her father was smiling at her. It was a genuine smile as well. Giselle sat down at his indication sweeping off her cloak and with a wave of his hand her bag and cloak was taken up to her room in the West Tower which was Giselle's own private room.

"I have dinner waiting for us" he said quietly. "While I spin the wheel for a while why don't you find a book and translate for us. I want to see what you've learnt in the last week"

Giselle sat down her purple skirt fanning out around her. "Translation of the runes from the language of Arabic to our language?" she asked and with another wave the book fell in front of her. Turning to the page she began to read.

That night Giselle slipped into her nightdress and curled under the red velvet coverlet and laid her head on the clean white pillowcase. Her room was a large circle with the bed in the middle. It was a double sized bed covered in fresh clean linin and was accompanied by a desk with access to the library and a pewter bath tub that had access to have hot water. There was a chest of oak for her clothes. The mirror remained the same like it had done all her life, covered.

Giselle had learned a long time ago that, that was one of the golden rules of living in the Dark One's house if only just for three days a week, throughout the years.

The next few days Giselle knew would be filled with taking books from the library back home, fetching straw and reading to her father, having dinner and talking about his many adventures. To some it wasn't enough. To her it was. It was like all the other weekends in fact and Giselle was happy in her sleep, comfortable and safe and in her own strange way loved.

Her last thought before her eyes fluttered closed was that she probably had a better life than the one her biological parents would have picked out for her. It was funny...how that thought often occurred to her whenever she was in the Castle, food and wine and books making her drowsy.

And she fell asleep in the castle that was like a second home to her while her father was spinning at the wheel below.

* * *

Storybrooke

For a few more days everything was normal. The entire week afterwards Scarlett dedicated her time to a brutal English Language Essay dedicated to the changing of the language over Medieval and Modern times.

Scarlett personally thought that her English teacher might have a personal vendetta against the entire class to schedule such an essay for four thousand words in a week.

She was on her fourth tea in so many hours, had slumped into another pair of black leggings, and a two toned blue jumper when her Dad came home. Scarlett was halfway through proving a translation deep in thought when the door slammed.

"Hi" she said not looking up when the door opened or when her father took of his coat and kicked off his shoes and socks like he always did. It was a mark of informality that he only allowed Scarlett to see and she always had to hide her smile whenever she pretended that she didn't see it.

"Tea in the pot" he said wearily and Scarlett nodded. "I am two hundred words of the end of this blasted thing and then I am going to open a bottle of wine regardless of what you think of underage drinking"

Her father paused before standing up and using his cane to limp into the kitchen. Scarlett finished the sentence she was typing and looked up as the glass of red wine placed in front of her.

"Yikes" she said closing the laptop slightly and watching her Dad take a long gulp of his own wine. "What happened?" she took another long look at her father.

Her Dad gave a long and almost melancholy sigh. "I have some bad news sweetheart" he said. "So bad I think I might let you order in greasy food and sit up and drink with me for the night"

Scarlett did sit up straighter this time. she might have been fifteen and her father might be more...liberal...especially when it came to the fact that she spent most of her Saturday's reading in bed rather than partying down the Rabbit Hole but she knew that if he was offering her greasy food, a night off from a particularly nasty essay and a glass of wine to boot then Scarlett was half prepared for the world to come crashing down.

(For one brief moment she would later deny she thought that it might have something to do with her biological mother and father)

"Graham Humbert died today" he said quietly.

Scarlett stared at him sitting back in her chair.

"Shit" she said taking her wine and sipping it. The red wine burned the back of her throat for a second before she swallowed it. Her Dad raised his glass in a mocking kind of gesture.

"What off?" she asked quietly.

"Heart failure" her Dad said with a slight sneer as if he found it a highly doubtable story. Scarlett stared. "He's got to be mid-twenties if he was a day"

Her Dad inclined his head again. "He died" he said thoughtfully. "He died in Emma Swan's arms"

Scarlett stared at him. "They think she had something to do with it?" she said quietly. Her Dad shook his head. "She was shaking like a leaf when I arrived" he said thoughtfully. "And his heart just went out, like someone wrapped their fingers around his heart and crushed it"

"Graphic" Scarlett said shaking her head.

Her Dad nodded again.

"Interesting" he said quietly. "How everything seems to change in this quiet town when she arrives isn't it?"

"Like magic" Scarlett said standing up and stretching out her shoulders.

"You want me to get the pizza take out menu?" her Dad nodded his eyes fixed on the walls obviously thinking hard about whatever had happened tonight when the bright, attractive, charismatic Sherriff had died suddenly.

It wasn't until she was in the kitchen that Scarlett realised that yes, things had changed in this small quaint town the moment Emma Swan had appeared in her yellow car, dressed in red leather and setting her son's already over active imagination on fire with talk of curses and Evil Queen's.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Scarlett and Emma Swan bond over their similarities, Mary Margaret Blanchard is having an affair and Scarlett is still suffering flashbacks, meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest a devastating loss sends Giselle on a new path that neither she or Rumple saw coming.**

 **Let me know what you think, next chapter will come soon **


	4. The Search For Something More

**Hi so here is another chapter. Two updates in one go. I am starting school soon so therefore updates might be a bit slow so please bare with me.**

 **As you can see from the last chapter and this one the lies Rumple has built around Giselle are strong but when Season 2 comes along then we see the lies come crashing down.**

 **I expect Season 1 to have about eight chapters so bare that in mind.**

 **And any questions let me know via review or by PM.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle/Scarlett.**

 **Please read and review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost.

Chapter 4-The Search For Something More.

Scarlett and Emma Swan bond over their similarities, Mary Margaret Blanchard is having an affair and Scarlett is still suffering flashbacks, meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest a devastating loss sends Giselle on a new path that neither she nor Rumple saw coming.

* * *

 ** _Grief is the price we pay for Love_** **(Queen Elizabeth II)**

Storybrooke

Henry's teacher who Scarlett knew as Mary Margaret Blanchard was the one that gave Henry the book. She claimed it was due to hope reasons, or so Scarlett overheard one morning when she was half engrossed in a math problem and a bacon sandwich. Scarlett personally thought it sounded very double edged sword like but she didn't want to let anyone know she overheard.

Mary Margaret Blanchard was a source of either amusement or irritation for Scarlett depending on what day of the week it was and how much coffee Scarlett had had. She was undeniably earnest and never failed to wish Scarlett a good morning whenever she crossed the street. On the other hand she did irritate Scarlett because she was always (or at least always seemed to be) cheerful.

However, since she had took in Emma Swan the teacher had been acting well...erratically. Scarlett wouldn't have noticed it, if she hadn't been in Granny's one time when she came in wearing (at least for her) a low cut top and a rather short skirt that ended above her knees rather than below it like usual.

And it was clear to everyone...well...maybe just Scarlett and she suspected Emma Swan that the culprit behind these sudden changes was the very handsome (and Scarlett meant _really_ handsome) John Doe whose name was David Nolan.

Scarlett had eyes. She could see the way the charming (and married) man was staring at her over whatever book he was using as an excuse, like she was the only thing worth looking at.

And hell wasn't that the most tragic kind of love story that there ever was. Even Scarlett who didn't approve of cheating under any circumstances had to admit the whole forbidden, silent love thing made her want to weep into her coffee and cuddle up on the couch and eat ice cream.

It was so bad that Scarlett actually felt for Emma Swan who probably had to live with it. And well...she kinda agreed with Miss Blanchard when she said in an undertone to Emma that she found David Nolan in the blue shirt attractive.

And if she slid her way up to him as he left the dinner one morning and casually told him. "She likes you in the blue shirt by the way" and then winked at David Nolan's stunned and then rather pleased expression when the reference caught on, then that was her business and nothing more.

Emma Swan was now the Sherriff of Storybrooke and her son was still desperately trying to figure out the curse that he so desperately believed existed. Scarlett wasn't sure exactly how much Emma was willing to condone but there was something about the woman that she couldn't help but like.

It didn't help she thought grinning that she was an ex-jailbird.

Scarlett however was also struggling to sleep on top of all the intrigue swirling the town. The dreams of pirate ships and castles hadn't stopped and now the insomnia was kicking it. It was getting the too point where Scarlett was beginning to believe medication would help and considering what her Dad would do if he didn't find out she couldn't help but consider the possibility of just stealing a tub from the pharmacy.

"Drugs are monitored" came a voice over her shoulder when Scarlett was just staring at them. She jumped turning around. It was Emma Swan all red leather and gloriously neat hair. Scarlett tugged a lock of her own messy hair and frowned.

"Relax kiddo" Emma said holding up her hand. "I'm not gonna bust you, figured it must be something serious if you can't sleep.

Scarlett blinked. "Insomnia" she said finally. "That how you got caught?" she asked in spite of herself.

"No" Emma said frowning. "Suppose you think I'm unfit" she led the way out the store and Scarlett had no choice but to follow her.

"No" she said shaking her head. "I think it's kinda cool actually. Makes it much harder for criminals if the one catching them actually one"

Emma blinked and then a small smile crept over her face. "Thanks Scarlett" she said as they walked down Main Street. The sky was getting darker and Scarlett shivered slightly. Her uniform wasn't exactly the warmest thing in the world.

"Hey" Emma said as they made to part ways. "Try some hot milk and cinnamon before bed" she shrugged "Always worked for me"

"Thanks" Scarlett said grinning easily. "It's kinda easy to talk to you, you know" she said not even bothering to kick herself at the amount of armour she was letting down. Emma smiled again. "Hey" she said shrugging "You know where I am if you wanna talk, figure you need some girl company with just Gold in that house"

Scarlett shrugged. Emma nodded. And with that they parted ways.

And that night Scarlett tried Emma's milk concoction and found that she didn't dream of pirate ships, castles or a little cottage on the outskirts of a village or the plague that raged through there like a wildfire.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Dark Castle.

The plague had been raging for a while now. People were clamouring to the gates of the Dark Castle desperate for help. The nobility were in uproar. Lack of the poor people and their children meant that the Ogres War stopped by Giselle's father could start again.

The second the plague had reached the villages under the Dark One's realm, Giselle had found herself permanently living in the castle. Her father had given her the excuse (rather gruffly) of 'Your no use to me dead' which Giselle took as a way of caring.

She had packed her entire life into a few bags and then been carted off leaving Rosanna to tend to the sick children herself and become horrifically in danger of getting infected herself.

Her father for the most part was rather careful much more than Giselle thought he would have been. However she noticed he did help the children, especially the ones who had fought in the same war Giselle's half-brother had almost been conscripted in by making them tinctures if not to heal them then to at least take away their pain at the end.

Giselle had taken over managing the castle in her father's long absences. She wrote daily to Rosanna and spent her time making sure that the beds were changed (considering there were only two bedrooms that didn't mean much) and there was simple food on the table.

There had been an outbreak of plague when she was five so she knew what to expect and while she was confined to the castle she took to reading books and reading the maps of the seas that kept the realm safe, she took to making sure all the potions were stocked and there was wood in the grate and found like it was like playing house.

At night she went to bed her clothes in the chest and for three long months before the snow came and the Ogres were confirmed to be rising again the plague stopped.

One night she woke up to see the moon peeking through the open shutters and something inside Giselle lurched, something she couldn't explain, as if she had lost something and nothing would ever be the same. She didn't sleep for the rest of the night, she choose instead to sit in her chair by the window and watch the moon until it was covered by the dark clouds like so many lives had been blacked out by a cruel and painful death nobody saw coming.

Her father while the all-powerful Dark One couldn't stop nature's disease from coming and one day Giselle was in the process of adding more straw to his basket when the raven came and delivered him a message. He read it, long fingers spread on the creamy parchment and Giselle could tell from the look on his face that it wasn't good news.

"Is someone we know dead?" she asked quietly. She had a feeling she knew who but she wanted it confirmed. She'd known since that night now nearly two days ago what had happened but she had remained in denial refusing to ask and gain an answer until it was confirmed by another source.

"Rosanna is dead" her father said after a long pause as if worried she would break down.

Giselle stared for a second. Rosanna had been her mother for nearly thirteen years or the closest thing she had to one. She had rocked her to sleep and comforted her from the nightmares, she had taught Giselle to keep a house and make medicine and mend clothes, to read and write and had read her bed time stories. She had been her mother in all but name and now she was gone.

Her knees didn't buckle. Some feeling slid through her something she'd never felt before. Pride. She wouldn't allow anyone, not the Dark One, the Evil Queen anyone to see her break. She carefully controlled her face and swallowed harshly the lump in her throat, the rising wall of despair.

"How?" she asked her voice breaking on the last syllable.

"Plague" he said shortly. "It was quick and painless if it helps you grieve"

It didn't.

"What...what do I do now?" she asked blindly as her father stood up and Giselle realised that her grief must be showing on her face because the man pushed her into a chair and wrapped her cold hands around his own a show of contact he very rarely did. If Giselle looked hard enough she could see his fingernails turning pink again.

"You stay here" he said gently. "I won't have you living alone. I said when I took you from your murderous father that I would protect you and I meant that, you can stay here as my ward like you used to do. I can protect you when Regina comes and I could use the company"

Giselle swallowed again harshly nodding. Her Dad's hand found her shoulder. "Go to bed sweetheart" he said gently. "I'll send up a sleeping tincture in a bit, drink that and then sleep for a while, dream dreamless dreams and then in the morning we can set about burying Rosanna. I'll have a grave done in front of the house and you can go visit"

His words were washing over Giselle but she couldn't help but take comfort from them. His fingers pressed once into the skin of her shoulder and if she hadn't been staring blindly at the carpet in front of her she would have seen his hand creep up to gently thread his fingers through her hair.

With a flash of his magic she was back in her own room, tincture on the dresser.

She stripped shivering into her nightdress almost methodically. She climbed into bed chilly the vial in her hand and stared at it for a second. She couldn't take in its beauty because Rosanna was dead. She couldn't do anything anymore because Rosanna was dead, she would never know a mother's love again because Rosanna was dead. Her real father had taken her real mother, had killed her according to the Dark One downstairs and now her closet confident was dead.

Giselle paused feeling something build in her throat. A low moan almost like she'd heard mothers do when their children died. She moved as if on autopilot to the chest of draws again moving right to the bottom.

There nestled between the velvet blankets that had once been her old bedcovers was the one secret she kept from her father. It was the white blanket she had been rescued in. Rosanna had kept it and Giselle had buried it at the back of her chest of clothes refusing to even look at it, a symbol of her birth parents, for a long time. But now she felt a desperate need for that connection.

There it was all white wool and pink edges. There was always that smell of dark musk on it and sea salt and Giselle thought it must belong to her father. She climbed into bed blanket in hand and finally drained the vial.

In seconds she fell into a dreamless sleep, clutching the blanket wrapped around her, it didn't cover her anymore like it once did but it provided a comfort that the priceless things around her right then couldn't.

Something about that blanket and that smell had always been comforting.

* * *

 **And let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-As Scarlett comes home to a break in and the realisation that her father might not have been completely honest with her while in the Enchanted Forest, Giselle's new life comes under threat when her father brings home a maid as part of the deal leading to some tension about who is the one woman in the Dark One's Life. **


	5. Stepmothers And Stepdaughters

**Hi, here is another chapter.**

 **This chapter does start a conflict between Giselle/Scarlett and Belle that does progress throughout the rest of the series. This is typical two women in a man's life kinda thing. Giselle has been the only woman in Rumple's life and the same with Scarlett and Belle kinda disrupts things, also Giselle needs to have a conflict so that is the starting line for this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 5-Stepmothers And Stepdaughters

As Scarlett comes home to a break in and the realisation that her father might not have been completely honest with her, all the while in the Enchanted Forest, Giselle's new life comes under threat when her father brings home a maid as part of a deal leading to some tension about who is the one woman in The Dark One's life.

* * *

 ** _There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everyone guesses._** **(George Bernard Shaw) **

Storybrooke

In truth Scarlett hadn't realised something was wrong until she'd come home that day from school. Her English teacher upon the completion of the essay that had been set back while the town was in mourning had taken one look at his exhausted and relived class and sent them home for the afternoon telling them to get some sleep and perhaps go easy on the coffee for the next couple of days.

Scarlett tucked her school blazer tighter around her as she neared the gate and it was then that she noticed the Sherriff's car in the drive and the fact that the door was open.

Holy shit. Either Emma Swan had gone back to her roots of breaking and entering or something had happened to her father.

That scared Scarlett. For as long as she could remember she couldn't imagine a life without her Dad. She couldn't imagine a life where 'Mr Gold' hadn't been in her life. She couldn't imagine someone else taking his place.

Carefully and quietly she pushed the door open a little to peer inside.

"Honestly" came the voice of Emma Swan "You should be thanking me not pointing a gun at me. Did you really think that you could sweep all of this under the now missing rug?"

Scarlett peered round the corner. Sure enough there was her Dad sitting on the couch and clearly only half listening to Emma Swan rabbiting on about the dangers that came with keeping a gun in the house.

Scarlett blinked. Since when did they have a gun in the house?

"What's going on?" she asked boldly feeling better about coming into view.

In another situation the way that Emma and her Dad both jumped when they heard her voice would have been funny. Any other day.

"Why are you back so early?" her Dad asked standing up and leaning heavily on his cane.

"Class got let out early, so what happened?"

"Robbery" Emma said shortly.

"Mo French" her Dad said grimly naming the local florist and a man that Scarlett had to admit gave her creeps. It didn't help the fact that he seemed to take everything that had happened to him so personally. Especially when her Dad had been forced to disclose his assets and take away the van that he used for deliveries.

"I see" Scarlett said even though she didn't. She crossed her arms around her waist in order to pretend that they weren't trembling.

"Scarlett" Emma said as if an idea had just popped into her head there and then. "I don't suppose that you could just check your room and make sure that the burglar didn't take anything"

Scarlett flashed Emma a smile and then ducked into her room to see. Her laptop was still plugged in and her expensive boots were slung across the floor. It didn't look like her room had been touched and the white blanket with pink edges was still safe in its locked box.

"No" she said coming down the stairs to face Emma. "I don't think that anything of mine was taken, hell I don't think that he was even in the room"

Emma wrote that down on a pad, said something to her father and then disappeared.

"Shit" Scarlett said looking around the mess that had once been their front living room.

"Come here" her Dad said opening his arms and rather surprised Scarlett slid into them. The two of them weren't big on physically affection and therefore they didn't hug much, but Scarlett couldn't help but admit that it felt nice.

"I'm going to call a handyman and get the locks on the doors changed" he said once they'd pulled back from their embrace. He reached into his wallet. "Why don't you go into town and treat yourself to some chocolate. For the both of us"

Scarlett grinned taking the twenty bill waved in front of her. "The expensive kind" she said grinning and her father flashed a distracted grin back at her. "The expensive kind" he said grimly.

"Someone" he said as she was just leaving. "Someone is going to pay for this"

Scarlett thought it best to pretend that she hadn't heard that.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Dark Castle.

Giselle's life continued much the same as before. She was confined to her room for most of the day especially the days that her father used the gift of foresight and saw Regina on the doorstep. Magic had granted her the gift of not having to go home to pack up her small possessions and perhaps sensing that she couldn't go through the hell that would have been a funeral her father had buried Rosanna privately.

The Ogres War was increasing with a horrible finality. The skies weren't painted red with the blood of children but the panic was easily in the air. Due to this Giselle had been mostly confined to the castle a fact which didn't bother her in the slightest. In fact most days she spent her time in the library with a book or in fact in the gardens. She did her lessons at the table and fetched straw when she was asked but her life seemed to stretch for months with no end in sight.

She turned fourteen in the ninth month of the year and was granted a horse for the first time.

"You can ride him in the gardens" she was instructed sternly. "Not in the town"

Giselle didn't care that much. A horse was a horse no matter where you rode it and the sense of freedom that came with riding was never dampened by the where and the why. Slowly she started to smile again, the pain of losing her old life, of losing Rosanna never faded but she had to admit slowly she was beginning to like being the singular focus of attention for her father. While Rosanna had filled a void for years she had never had much contact other than the ends of the weeks with her father and she knew this much contact with her was strange for him.

And then, just when the world finally felt right again, something happened that made Giselle's barely stable world imploded again.

 _She_ happened.

One night her father had business in a small town ran by a small noble. Giselle had just settled down in her nightdress and shawl with a good book in front of the fire, her dark hair tumbling down her shoulders when the door to the main room opened and two people came in.

One was her father. And the other...the other was a woman.

She couldn't have been older than twenty. She was wearing a bright yellow dress that screamed money in a way that Giselle would have never worn and her hair was loose around her shoulders in chocolate waves and a great sight nicer than Giselle's raven hair would have ever been.

She stood up wrapping the shawl tighter around her. Had this had happened this morning, when she was dressed in her new gown of black and silver silk and her hair twisted into a knot she might have been prepared. She might have had her armour ready but she wasn't. Not for this.

She was barefoot, in her loose nightdress and shawl and hopelessly insignificant.

And she _hated_ it.

"Giselle" her father said sitting himself down at the head of the table. "This is Belle, Belle this is my ward, Giselle Jones"

Giselle raised an eyebrow. Her father had never called her his ward before. She had always been his daughter. Belle shot her a small smile and Giselle answered it only to be polite.

"She's coming to live with us"

She got the impression her father might have meant this as if it was a treat. Belle looked both terrified and resolute.

"I'm sorry" Giselle repeated.

"I acquired her as part of a deal" a small smirk was now playing around his mouth. "She's going to clean and cook and do whatever it is the unpaid do."

"Oh good" Giselle said rolling her eyes. "Everything I do then. And what should I do move back out, live in town?"

Actually that wouldn't be such a bad idea come to think of it.

"No" her father said in a tone that brooked no discussion after the fact.

"Well then" Giselle said feeling her impatience rise and no end in sight to conversation. "I suppose I will go back to bed then"

She blinked and found her room.

"Magic" she muttered irritably opening the window so she could sit on the ledge and think or perhaps find the concentration to read again. She found the cold air soothed her fraying temper and by the time she went to bed she was calm again.

Really, what damage could this Belle do? What part would she play in Giselle's life that would affect it?

Oh how very wrong she was.

* * *

Storybrooke

Either Scarlett was imagining things or her father was losing his mind. He had taken to prowling up and down the house with his cane muttering about the one thing missing despite Emma Swan arresting Mo French and returning most of their valuables.

His mood had been so unpredictable that Giselle had taken to spending most afternoon's at Granny's. It was getting easier to watch the Mary Margaret/David Nolan show as they were becoming more and more obvious.

"Hello" said a voice behind her that afternoon. Scarlett jumped about three feet in the air when she heard that voice. That was the voice of Mayor Mills.

Regina Mills was always impeccably dressed, her hair was always perfect no matter what the weather and her makeup was always perfect. She was a complete opposite to Scarlett who felt very out of place in her black shirt and blue jeans and boots.

"Mayor" she said sitting up a bit straighter.

Regina was staring at her as if desperately trying to think of something.

"Remind me" she said her nails drumming a pattern on the side of the table.

"Your father, Mr Gold, he's your adoptive father correct"

"Yes" Scarlett said not having a clue where this was going.

"How long has he been your adoptive father?"

Scarlett paused thinking hard.

"All my life" she said finally grasping at straws. "For as long as I've lived in this town I think"

Regina shot her another distrustful look before sweeping off leaving Scarlett feeling both confused and unsettled.

"Are you alright?" asked a much gentler voice and she turned to see David Nolan peering at her looking rather concerned.

"I'm fine" she said truthfully.

David Nolan nodded before settling back down in his booth playing with the edge of his book and shooting looks at the door. God Scarlett thought irritably. Why didn't he just get rid of the wife that he clearly didn't want and turn his attention to the woman that he obviously wanted?

Men.

When Scarlett finally got home nobody was in. her Dad had obviously took his bad mood out of the house and Scarlett set about making dinner by pulling out the pot roast they'd saved from yesterday and re-stirring it.

Just as she was about to fire off a text to her Dad to ask him what the hell was taking so long the doorbell rang. When she opening it she was surprised and yet not really surprised to see Emma Swan with an apologetic look on her face.

"Did he do something?" Scarlett asked raising an eyebrow. Emma gave a long drawn out sigh.

"Yeah" she said finally. "Your Dad's been arrested Scarlett, he beat Mo French with his cane"

Scarlett blinked. Her father wasn't violent he preferred cold menace rather than using his fists and anyway most of the stuff that Mo French had took had been replaced.

"What the fuck did he do that for?" she said running a hand through her hair and tugging on the ends of it in frustration. Emma offered her a small smile. "Mo French has three broken ribs, a cracked cheekbone and several blows to the head. I had to arrest him for grievous assault."

Scarlett blinked again before she shook her head.

"I don't know what you want me to say" she said scrubbing a hand down through her hair again. Emma smiled sympathetically. "He's gonna be arraigned in the morning and chances are he's gonna be out on bail by tomorrow night..." she dithered.

"Scarlett I need you to come with me. Law kinda requires us to not leave you alone what with you being a minor and especially since your Dad is in the local jail cell"

Scarlett was just about to protest when Emma held up a hand in order to silence the words. "It's just for the one night" she said shaking her head, "You can come and sleep on the couch at my place, Mary Margaret won't mind"

Scarlett considered telling Emma no but she was tired, hungry and irritable with her father and she was desperate for once not to be alone. There was something about this whole business that made the hairs on her arm stand up and she couldn't put her fingers on it.

"Give me five minutes to get my stuff" she said and Emma nodded. Scarlett threw in her flannel pyjamas, her hairbrush and laptop, her toothbrush and her school uniform with a clean set of underwear for the morning. She crammed her boots on and then made it back down the stairs.

"Hey" Emma said once they were in the car. "Your Dad...he kept mentioning a 'She' that Mr French had took away from him, you don't know who that is do you?"

Scarlett blinked.

"No" she finally an odd feeling in her stomach. "I don't know who that is" she turned her face to the window and closed her eyes her head hurting with everything that had gone on in the last few hours. Thankfully Emma left it alone.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Dark Castle.

Giselle was wrong.

Belle was a nightmare.

The woman had gone from sweeping the floors to fetching straw to cooking and cleaning with a sense of cheer that made Giselle's teeth hurt. It didn't help that her father was completely enchanted with the woman.

Gods she was grating. She had changed from her yellow dress into a simple blue one and one day Giselle had had the horror of walking in through the door to see her in her father's arms the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

Good Lord. Giselle had gone back to her room her hands forming fists in her rage.

She wanted blood.

She had been the only woman in the Dark One's life for too long and she wasn't prepared to give it up for a simpering noble girl who thought that she could fix the Dark One.

Belle either didn't pick up on the hostility between her and Giselle or she was stupid, Giselle thought one night. She simpered at her in the morning and simpered at her at night from her position on sofa reading the books that Giselle used to read and translating the runes she used to do.

"I want to travel one day" Belle said over dinner and her father smiled at her in a way he had never smiled at Giselle. "Lovely" Giselle said coldly. "I suppose that you still think..." but the rest of her answer was drowned out when her father held up his hand and turned his attention to the maid sitting next to him.

Giselle silently seethed throughout the next unbearable three months. She had never been jealous of anyone but she couldn't help but feel so angry when it came to the woman downstairs smiling and giggling with her entranced father. She felt like screaming into her pillow at night.

Another thing that had come with Belle's arrival was the arrival of nightmares. Nightmares that always seemed to involve hooks and hearts being ripped out and other things Giselle couldn't tell her father about because of the existence of the other woman that was always by his side.

The only silver lining was that Belle was still in the dungeons even if she was sleeping under furs and silk.

At least the damn crying had stopped. Giselle had been living in and out of this home for years and had suffered loss that she still didn't think she'd ever understand and she prided herself on the fact that she had never cried into her pillow until the early hours of the morning and then sniffed all through breakfast.

Belle was at best a source of irritation to the position Giselle had in her father's life, shaky at best due to the fact that she was his ward and at worst Giselle sometimes wondered what would happen (in the dead of night and for a split second) if The Evil Queen found out about Belle's existence.

But then she'd know about Giselle and that would complicate things for _years_.

And then one day just when Giselle was finally beginning to sleep again without the nightmares of people's hearts being crushed in front of her eyelids making her wake up in a cold sweat something happened that finally made her smile at least in the privacy of her own room.

Belle was gone.

The correct term her father used after smashing all the glass from the windows and locking Giselle in her room for the day was that she was banished and never to return. Giselle hardly cared if she was being honest with herself. She went back to her room and poured herself a hot bath scrubbing down her skin until it was red and washing her hair until it was dripping down her back. By the time she came down to a very subdued dinner she felt better than she had done in a long time.

And that night she slept without a dream about a small town, a hook and a hand holding a heart and then crushing it until it turned into dust.

A week after she was told that Belle was dead. Giselle allowed herself the small leap of victory in her stomach even after she admitted that it probably wasn't the best thing to gloat over a woman's death.

There was however she would admit to herself only room for one woman in the Dark One's life.

A year after that her world was once again rocked when the unthinkable happened.

The Dark One was captured.

* * *

 **And let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-As Mary Margaret is arrested for murder, Scarlett notices tension between her Dad and Mayor Mills, meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest Giselle's life is rocketed by the news that the Dark One has been captured and the fact that she is alone and independent for the first time in fifteen years. **


	6. Relics

**Hi so here is another chapter. This one so far is the longest one and does multiple episodes. The entire Mary Margaret sandal is briefly mentioned in this chapter but this one mostly deals with the Giselle side of the character that is Scarlett Gold/Giselle Jones.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine but Giselle/Scarlett.**

 **I imagine that the reminder of Season 1 will be two more chapters. These eight chapters will be primarily Scarlett/Giselle's point of view and then when we hit season 2 we get chapter point of views from Killian, Gold and Emma and more...**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 6-Relics

As Mary Margaret is arrested for murder, Scarlett notices tension between father and Mayor Mills meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest Giselle's life is rocketed by the news that the Dark One has been taken capture and she is alone and independent for the first time in fifteen years.

* * *

 ** _Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within._** **(Arthur Erickson) **

Storybrooke

The morning after her father was arrested Scarlett woke up to the smell of hot chocolate and cinnamon as well as the sound of something frying.

She couldn't remember much of last night. Mary Margaret Blanchard had been nothing but welcoming and had made up a bed on the couch that had served it's purpose well. She carefully didn't mention the fact that Scarlett's Dad had been arrested for assault and had cooked a pasta dish from scratch that had been delicious.

Both she and Emma had made an effort to include her and soon Scarlett was sat in her long flannel pyjamas and laughing with ease as if she laughed every night. She had to admit that it was nice. She had never made friends easily and her Dad was well…her Dad. It was nice she realised to have someone to talk to about clothes and shoes and all the silly little things Scarlett didn't realise she'd missed.

She had passed out on the couch finally and when she woke up it was already to the two woman in the kitchen. Emma on the phone and Mary Margaret cooking breakfast. She dithered on the doorway of the little kitchen where the two woman were stood. For woman who had been living together for a short while Scarlett was surprised to see that they acted as though they'd been living together for years. They had a natural flow.

"Good morning Scarlett" said Mary Margaret setting down a mug of cocoa with whipped cream on the top. She passed the cinnamon shaker to Scarlett who shook her head. Personally, she did not like whipped cream that much but she didn't think that she should be the ungrateful guest what with them putting up with her no questions asked.

"Morning" she said finally slumping into a seat. "I don't suppose you know if my Dad made bail?" she asked as Emma hung up the phone looking annoyed. "No" she said finally "His arraignments later today"

"If he doesn't get it then you can come and spend the nights with us" Mary Margaret said sliding the scrambled eggs over to her. Scarlet had to look down least either one of them see the emotion that she was sure was written all over her face. She did not want either woman to know how much she missed female company. It had never bothered her before last night when it had been just her and her father locked away in their own little world.

She chewed her eggs as Mary Margaret patted her on the arm as if she knew what it meant that she was sat here at the table eating. Scarlett thought for a woman who had just been publicly shamed for having an affair with a married man the week before and then watched that man get questioned for the sudden and unexplained disappearance of his wife might have dampened her smile but apparently it hadn't.

Scarlett decided to bury herself in her toast. It was a Friday and a teacher training day for the Secondary teachers at Storybrooke High and she changed into her black ripped jeans, black tank top and boots that she took the night before. She decided to go for a walk down the river therefore giving Emma some time to get to work and herself time to get home and dump her stuff. Somehow she knew there wouldn't be another night like this one. Her father was…well…Mr Gold…he would be out before nightfall Scarlet knew.

She said goodbye to Mary Margaret and Emma and then made her disappearance. Thankfully most of the town was either at work and she avoided Granny's and therefore avoided most of the gossip. The entire town would be abuzz with the fact that the landlord of half of the town had took his cane to the back of the local florist no matter how much the rest of the town might have cheered him on.

Mo French was just creepy on his good days. Always hanging outside his window and watering plants for longer than usual whenever Scarlett found herself walking by.

Scarlett walked down to the edge of the sea where the town ended. She had not been down here very much but this was one of the days where she thought that seeing the boats sail off around the town was one of the more peaceful options she had available.

There was something wrong. She could not put her finger on it but instinct, which so far had never failed Scarlett Gold was telling her that something was wrong this time. Ever since Emma Swan had arrived and her son had been skipping around the town convinced that half of the population were fairy tale characters and setting his other mother's teeth on edge something had been changing in this town.

David Nolan waking up from his coma and finding his wife, and then somehow taking the time to find and keep a mistress. Her Dad beating someone with a cane and screaming about some woman that Scarlett had never heard off. Major Mills having an interest suddenly in the adoption of Scarlett and again, this woman that had turned up in the yellow car and turned the world upside down. Scarlett could not help the thought that she was standing on the edge of a cliff and that soon something would come along and push her off.

Because in her opinion independence was power.

Moreover, power…well…nobody was taking away whatever power she had left.

* * *

The Dark Castle. The Enchanted Forest. The Village Inn.

Giselle had woken up the morning her father had gone to take care of a deal with the ex-servant turned Princess Cinderella. Giselle who knew enough to piece together a picture had a horrible feeling that something wasn't right. Her father disappeared in his usual puff of purple smoke and Giselle watched him from the doorway of the Drawing Room wrapped in her black shawl and her nightdress her bare feet hitting the cold tiles making her shiver. Something was very wrong about this meeting and it was like the wood of the castle was warning her against it.

It would be the last time Giselle saw her father again as a free man.

Two nights later Giselle was getting worried. Her father hadn't travelled to the edge of the earth or anything else but he hadn't planned to be away this long otherwise Giselle would have known. Hell that whole Camelot thing when... _Belle_...was here her father had warned them multiple times that the trip was being delayed.

Three days of sitting in her nightdress in front of the ever burning magical fire and Giselle was going out of her mind. Something was wrong and yet she was too scared to move past her spot on the hearth her feet tucked under her and her eyes unblinking.

It was only as dawn rose the third day without any warning that Giselle felt able to move. She didn't realise what it was at first and then she realised that the fire had gone out. She blinked her eyes watering at the foreign movement and then realised what had happened.

The entire castle which ran on magic seemed to have gone still. The magic that had surrounded the castle that had kept Giselle safe for years had stopped flowing and the noise around the castle had stopped the silence strong.

Giselle looked around what had been her home her whole life, she took in the rich furnishings and the books, the straw next to the wheel and the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

Her father wasn't coming back.

It was quite a strange feeling. It wasn't the heartbreak that Rosanna's death had been, it wasn't the pain that still radiated throughout Giselle's body it was stronger than that. This pain was tempered by the knowledge that Giselle didn't know what had happened. How could someone defeat the Dark One?

And then a truly horrific thought sprang to mind. Was her biological father involved? Had he found her?

Forcing her panic down Giselle stood up on shaky feat, they were still bare but looking in the reflection of the silver on the mantelpiece she could see that her face was covered in soot from the fire. She looked half wild.

Once upon a time that might have made her laugh. Now it was like the cracking of a whip. If her father was dead...gods forbid...then this castle would likely come under siege. The Evil Queen, Snow White...anyone with a grudge would arrive soon and there would be no magic to stop them...every second Giselle was here she was in danger.

She didn't look back at the room as she ran to her own, Giselle grabbed the first dress she could find and threw it on along with her old boots. She grabbed a travel bag and shoved her spare boots, the simplest dresses and the nightdress she had, the butterfly hairpin that Rosanna had made for her, a couple of books, a quill and a pot of ink and finally the blanket that she had arrived in the castle wrapped in now nearly fifteen years ago.

She didn't look back at that room either.

She flung herself down the stairs into the library where she knew the strongbox where the coin idiot villagers paid when they needed a favour. She raided what she could find into a small purse. That seemed to be enough she concluded, to last her until she figured out what to do, she grabbed her cloak and then finally raided through the box hidden at the back of the library until finally she found the small hat that had once belonged to her brother.

She didn't know why she picked that up and stuffed it into the bag only that she wanted a bit of the boy that should have been around to protect her with her as she left to go into a self-imposed exile. Finally she grabbed the long dagger hidden under her chair in the library and tucked it into her side.

Max her horse was still tethered in his stall and Giselle untied him her fingers fumbling. Ever second she stayed in this castle she was reminded that she was in danger. It was becoming less and less like a home and more and more like a prison. As she swung herself onto the saddle and tied the bag down she felt for the first time ever a kind thought for Belle and what she had been through.

She was out the stables and out the gates (now swinging ominously open) in a matter of seconds. She got to the end of the driveway and turned around to see for the last time the one place she had called home.

The castle stood tall and imposing and still lonely in a way and Giselle swallowed back her terror and kicked Max so that he sped into a run.

Rosanna's house was clearly out of the question and Giselle was hooked on both adrenaline and fear that she didn't want to stop in her old village for fear people would recognise her. She rode for a good four or five hours until she got to the edge of another village. Instinct told her wherever she was it wasn't in the Dark One's kingdom.

She slid off the horse as she got near the tavern. The people inside were clearly celebrating and as she tethered Max in the stables at the back and paid the old guard a coin to ward off horse thieves she realised that this was Snow White's kingdom.

(She had heard rumours about this princess and all the hope and optimism that had come with her. She was enough to make Giselle's teeth hurt)

She slipped inside hoping to keep to the back when she bumped into someone. "Sorry" she muttered keeping her head down.

"Oh don't worry about it little one" the man said jovially. Giselle peeked a glance at him under her hood. He was an old man with a heavy set accent and his hands which had kept her stable were hard and rough with injuries. This must be some sort of carpenter. What was even more surprising was the little wooden child supping a bowl of hot cocoa milk with surprising fervour.

"Apologies" she said again "I did not realise what the celebration was about"

The carpenter laughed a gentle laugh that made Giselle's stomach clench into knots.

"Ah little one, where are your parents?"

Giselle shrugged. Thankfully the man seemed to realise she wasn't one for talking for he continued.

"Ah well...Igor" he said shouting over the barman. "Get this little one a pint of ale, I don't usually condone this but everyone should be happy on a day like today" he pushed Giselle towards the bar and then disappeared off into the milling crowd.

The barman came over his face torn between amusement and disapproval. "It's only a half love" he said grinning "Don't want to be setting a bad example now do we?" he eyed her critically. "Bread and cheese as well" he said taking in her rumpled appearance and dust and soot stained face.

"Please" Giselle said passing over the money and accepting the bread and cheese. "What's all this celebration about?"

The man laughed loudly. "Why Snow White has done it of course!" he said grinning. "She's gone and captured the Dark One"

Giselle spat a mouthful of ale across the table.

Fortunately the man just laughed.

"Aye" he said nodding. "He's deep in the cells of the castle now and the Evil Queen has lost her greatest ally. Good finally can win"

Giselle dropped her mug on the table her head pounding with both the noise and the news. "I need a room for the night" she said finally dropping more coins onto the palm of the innkeeper and letting him point her in the direction of a room.

"Think" he said as Giselle made it to the door still clutching her tankard of ale. "All that wealth in that castle free for the taking" he allowed Giselle to slip into the room pausing as he turned around. "Name for the register love?" he asked.

Giselle paused. "Elle" she said finally going with the abbreviation that popped into her head for the first time. "Elle Jones" and with that she shut the door behind her finally locking it shut.

It took her a second looking around the cold, unfriendly room with the bed and basin so different from the one that she had left hours ago. And was it really hours ago? It felt like days since she had left the warmth of that fire.

Numbly she stripped of her cloak, dumping the still full tankard of ale on the small table and dropped her bag and then finally her legs went out from under her and she sank to the floor.

There was a second where she couldn't move and then a horrible gasping sob forced its way out of her. Her father was in _prison_. Snow White's prison, her home was probably being ransacked by hundreds of angry villagers and Giselle was once again alone. She swallowed down the vomit in her throat and leaned against the door her legs tucked under her.

Her father, the Dark One in _prison._ It must have been part of some big plan. There was no way he would ever allow himself to be captured. Not with the gift of foresight. But he was alone in a cell and Giselle was alone in hiding now with no clue what to do.

It was like the previous night. Giselle sat down on the floor watching the sky get dark and then lighter as the morning came trying to think about a plan. She couldn't spend the rest of her life in this room no matter how tempting and she couldn't go back home. Not without the enchantments in place.

That left...endless possibilities.

Giselle had never had this much independence before. Her life she realised standing and walking around the room her legs stiff, had always been strictly controlled, it had been (she had been assured) for her own safety and she had took it with a pinch of salt but now...now she was alone for the first time in her life she would be open to all possibilities. She had a horse and money, she could travel, and she could see the sea...

And then a truly dark thought came to mind that Giselle couldn't squash.

 _She could find her biological father._

He had been she knew a murderous pirate. She could look him in the eye and make sure he knew that she had been better off without him, she could make him pay for the murder of her mother and the disappearance of her brother, and she could make it clear that she hated him.

It was a deep dark place that her biological father had taken her too and Giselle felt like her skin was on fire. She wanted to hurt for the first time in her life...she wanted to _kill_...not even her distain for Belle had brought her to this place.

She wanted to hurt the monster that had took away her family.

Gods this darkness thing was powerful.

Finally exhaustion crept in and she lay down on the bed and fell into a light sleep for what seemed and what was an hour.

When she woke she took the jug down to the bar. The tavern was quiet compared to the noise that had filled it the previous night and one of the bar staff filled the jug with cool water for Giselle to wash.

"Any more news on the Dark One" Giselle said quietly.

The bar man a young boy not much older than Giselle shook his head.

"Only that he's captured, the rest of the talk now is on Snow White's and Prince Charming's wedding though I did hear" he lowered his voice. "That it had something to do with a baby, he tried to take the baby away from Cinderella and that's how they caught him" he shook his head. "I heard a rumour from a man last night just travelled down from the harbour for trade that this isn't the first time either, apparently he took a baby away from a Captain a long time ago as well"

Giselle nearly dropped the jug. "Oh?" she said hoping her tone sounded calm. "You know who that baby is?" the man shrugged. "Work in here long enough dark eyes and you'll hear everything, apparently this Captain as a hook as well" he shook his head. "Can you imagine a one handed pirate?"

Giselle forced herself a laugh. "Did he dock yet?" she asked her head spinning. The man shrugged "Pirate ships come and go everyday" he said bluntly. "I suppose that he might be here, by the time the Navy are dispatched the ships are in the sea. And well...the Evil Queen is more important to Snow White I suppose"

Giselle nodded her knuckles turning white around the jug. "Oh" she said flatly. "I suppose that's..." she shrugged her other hand clenching into a fist trying to act as if nothing was wrong, forcing herself not to act suspicious.

"You want to keep the room for another night?" he asked suddenly and Giselle shook her head. "No I should be moving on" she said forcing herself to smile. "Thank you for the water"

Back in her room she forced herself to wash thinking hard. This Captain with a hook either started the rumour about her biological father or knew him...hell it could even be him. The Dark One wasn't going anywhere and Giselle for once had the independence to choose where she went from here.

At the very least, she could see the sea for the first time in her life.

If she didn't get answers, well...she had managed this far without them.

If she did...well...her hand tightened slightly around her knife.

At least now she had a plan.

* * *

Storybrooke

Scarlett was right to think that her father would be out by the end of the day. When she went home after reading a few chapters of her book out by the sea she crossed Main Street.

"Oh for fucks sake" she snapped as the third person walked past her muttering to themselves. "Get a bloody life, he's in charge of your rent for the love of..."

"They aint talking about your old man sister" said a heavy voice behind her. Scarlett turned to see Leroy, a frequent customer of Granny's step into step next to her. "They're all gossiping about Miss Blanchard"

"Why" Scarlett said stopping short. Leroy turned to stare at her looking even more grin than usual. "She's been arrested for the murder of Kathryn Nolan" he said quietly. "Ruby was freelancing for Emma and she came across a box in the woods and found..." he paused as if trying to find words to voice his distaste.

"She found a human heart in the box" he said. Scarlett couldn't help the gasp that came out of her mouth. "It's Miss Blanchard's box" Leroy hissed grabbing Scarlett by the elbow and forcing her down the street away from prying eyes.

"Emma had to arrest her" he said and Scarlett closed her eyes as the wind blew up around her ankles. Leroy shook his head and Scarlett couldn't help but shiver. God she really should have took a jacket, it seemed like this town was getting very dark all of a sudden.

"So it's...her heart" she said finally. Leroy nodded. "I'll drive you back home sister" he said finally. "Or at least back to the gate, I don't like the idea of you walking through this town all alone with all this strange happenings, well happening"

Scarlett nodded. For once she wasn't irritated with the company.

They didn't talk on the way back but Scarlett could tell Leroy was on the lookout. Everytime they came across a shadow in the road the man slammed on the breaks.

She paused at the door to her house. It swung open and Scarlett was relieved to see her father home if not entirely unsurprised. He had that strange look on his face he'd been having ever since Emma Swan had arrived.

"I thought I'd better drive your girl home what with everything" Leroy said stiffly.

"Thank you" her Dad said opening the door as Scarlett slipped in. she moved to the living room while she assumed her father dealt with Leroy.

"So" she said as the door shut. "Katheryn Nolan is dead"

"Apparently" her father said. "Mo French has decided to drop all charges"

Scarlett who hadn't turned around was watching through the glass in the cabinet. There was something about the way her father was smiling right now that made her shiver. It was almost...sinister...

"I should go get changed" she said finally. "I'm glad your back"

"Don't go anywhere without telling me again, I worry" her Dad said as she made it up the stairs. "Especially if you're near that bloody sea" Scarlett paused debating how to answer that for a second but she eventually nodded.

There was no point in arguing. "I have to ring Major Mills again" her father said at the bottom of the stairs. "She wants to know what's going on" he shook his head and Scarlett managed to make it up to her room sitting down on the bed heavily.

Something was wrong, something was wrong and she could feel it crawling all over her skin. Since when did her father ring Major Mills? Since when did the woman who had made her breakfast just this morning (and was it really just this morning?) was a cold bloodied killer.

She shook her head lying back on her bed her head hurting. She could hear the mutters from her Dad downstairs on the phone and she shut her eyes trying to keep the tears that had sprung up from nowhere from escaping.

And that night she dreamed of the pirate ship again this time with land approaching on the horizon.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Scarlett in Storybrooke deals with the impending and then ending trial of Mary Margaret Blanchard as both Emma and Regina ask favours, both desperate to protect their son from the other, meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest Giselle travels to the port to see if she can find and (gain the nerve) kill her biological father.**

 **Please let me know what you think and send in your reviews.**


	7. The Little Things

**Hi another chapter, this one follows up from the last one and the next chapter will be the end of the first Season. The Second Season has more chapters and therefore more detail.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine but Scarlett/Giselle.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 7-The Little Things

Scarlett in Storybrooke deals with the impending and then ending trial of Mary Margaret Blanchard as Regina makes veiled threats dropping a hint that might have devastating consequences, meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest Giselle travels to the port to see if she can find and (gain the nerve) kill her biological father, while the barman finds Giselle is not the only guest that turns up looking tired and sad. 

* * *

**_If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins._** **(Benjamin Franklin)**

Storybrooke (Morning)

There were several things that Scarlett didn't like when it came to living in a small town. The number one thing was the fact that gossip seemed to dominate Storybrooke and it got even worse by the fact that in the coming weeks Emma Swan had to arrest her own roommate for the murder of her lover's wife.

How her Dad who had to Scarlett's knowledge no legal qualifications was on board to represent her. How Scarlett didn't know either but she knew better than to ask questions when her Dad got that strange look on his face again. She caught him looking at her sometimes with that look on his face before his expression changed. As if he was viewing her as a threat and he wasn't sure how he could control her.

Some days were normal. Scarlett kept her head down and pretended that she didn't see Henry's heartbroken and confused face and the way Emma Swan seemed to go about ready for a fight. Some days were normal. Like the day two weeks after the arrest when Scarlett and her Dad were sat at the kitchen counter eating omelettes and drinking tea on a Sunday morning.

The phone rang disrupting the two of them and their tenuous relationship and Scarlett knew that whatever fragile peace there was in this town would be ruined by whoever it was that was calling.

"Gold" he said chewing on the mouthful of egg. Scarlett paused taking a mouthful of tea. She looked up to see a faint look of triumph on her father's face.

"Of course Miss Swan I would be happy to meet you down at the station to discuss these events"

He hung up turning to Scarlett who was watching him carefully.

"Katheryn Nolan has been found alive"

Scarlett choked on a mouthful of egg. "What" she half demanded. Her Dad nodded. "Ironic really isn't it"

Scarlett didn't think it was ironic at all and she wasn't sure if the words that she was thinking of right now would have been extremely rude well...rude.

"I suppose she has an explanation for what she's put this town through" Scarlett muttered bitterly. She had a reason to be bitter. She wasn't someone who gossiped all day and she kept getting headaches that were made only worse whenever the topic of conversation turned to the trial that was now apparently over.

Her Dad snorted. "Well" he said finally standing up and reaching for his cane. "I guess we'll find out"

They left the house together, her Dad walking with his cane and he held out his arm to Scarlett who smiled and took it. They hadn't done this in years, linked arms as they walked into the main area of the town.

"I'll see you tonight Sweetheart" her Dad said pressing a kiss in her hair. Scarlett resisted the urge to burrow her head into his chest and stay there forever like she had done when she was little. Instead she smiled and took off down the street.

Regina Mills was already waiting for her.

"Hello" she said her tone crisp and cool, she slung her arm around Scarlett's shoulders as if this was something she did every day. Scarlett followed her eyes with a growing sense of incredulity. "Emma Swan" Regina said slowly her tone becoming more and more dangerous with each passing word. "Wants to take my son away from me, I think once this disturbing business with Miss Blanchard is over she's going to retain the services of your father"

She turned sharply pivoting Scarlett with her. Her leather clad hand came out to play gently with one end of Scarlett's hair that had come loose from the messy knot that was tied on top of her head and brushed it out the way. The whole thing would have seemed almost motherly if it hadn't been so unnerving.

"Just remind your father if you would dear that he's not the only one who can play dirty. I am quite capable of putting on a fight and for Henry it will be the fight of his life" she sighed in fake sincerity. "I would hate for me and Gold to share the same fate of losing our boys"

And with that she smiled brightly, turned on her heal and walked away leaving Scarlett both confused and for some unknown reason fighting the urge to cry. She stared for a second clutching the strap of her bag before deciding for once in her life to fuck it. At least for today. She wasn't in the mood for school.

And with that she ducked her head down and disappeared down an alley hoping against hope that nobody had seen her with Regina and would report back to her father.

Her mind however was swirling. Since when did her father have another child?

And why didn't she know about it?

And where was he now?

And perhaps the most important question of all, was he related by blood? Could he too share the same genes she did? Or was she really the last decent member of her family left alive as she had always feared?

Scarlett ducked down to the docks her hands still crumpled into fists. She found her usual hiding spot in the Boat Shed and leaned her head back against the wood feeling utterly exhausted and drained. She didn't know what was happening in this town anymore but she knew that something was horribly wrong.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Sea Port. The Sea Port Inn

It had taken Giselle two days to get to the port. Two days of hard and fast riding through forest and most of the time without stopping. Even through nights with a war waging bitterly on both sides Giselle had rode Max through it all until finally she had crossed the space of nearly the entire kingdoms and reached her destination.

She slid from Max and took him to the stables paying the stable hand who eyed her up until she showed him the knife that she was holding at her side. She slipped in through the door her hood held over her head and made her way to the bar silently. Thankfully the tavern was almost empty. A couple of loud people were over in the corner but they had their faces hid so Giselle slid into the corner bar seat, pulled down her hood and rested her head on her folded arms.

The barman grunted making Giselle look up. She was tired, hungry and dirty and she wasn't in the mood. That dark, empty feeling that had she had carried around with her for a long time was increasing with every second that she was looking for the monster that was her birth father.

"Ale?" he said casually and Giselle nodded dropping a coin into his grubby palm.

"Running from something?" he said shrewdly. Giselle started but the barman laughed. "Don't worry little lovely, I don't tell"

"You serve pirates in here" Giselle said quietly and the barman nodded. "Aye, but don't go getting any ideas, the Working Girls I don't mind so much, anything your age and I throw the old men out"

Giselle let herself smile for a second before nodding. "I was looking for a man with a hook, I think he could help me with something" under the bar her hand tightened on her knife a little and she felt the cool steel pressing into her leg.

"Hook?" the barman said laughing. "Ah he's not too bad I suppose, brutal and ruthless but he accepts it, pays the bills on time as well" he eyed Giselle suspiciously. "If you're looking for a way to escape he won't take you little lovely. He hasn't had a woman in years not since the one he was hanging around was murdered...or so I was told" he caught Giselle's eye and shrugged. "Different Port, different time"

"Do they ever have children?" Giselle asked before she could stop herself. She took a gulp of ale as the barman snorted. "Some do" he nodded. "Blackbeard must have about twenty that I know about gods knows more. I don't remember anyone else though, Silver might have a couple but he's long gone and dead and most of the time they either pretend that they don't exist or they get rid of them"

He caught Giselle's shocked expression and laughed harshly. "Don't look so shocked little love, it happens. There's no justice down this end of the world, there's no Dark One, there's no Evil Queen or Snow White. Say what you want about the first two. They damn well kept their kingdoms under control"

Giselle swallowed again. Everything she had ever heard about her father was coming true right in front of her eyes. She wanted to scream but she wasn't sure if she would be able to stop. Instead she took another gulp of ale and clenched her other hand into a fist her knuckles turning white.

The barman put down the glass and gave Giselle a long look.

"I don't know what you're looking for lovely but you won't find it in this town. I know you're not from here so let me give you some advice. Get the hell out while you still can. Hook, Blackbeard...whoever then hell you're looking for or running for, run some other place. This place will corrupt you if you stay here too long. These men will either kill you or corrupt you and I've seen too many young girls get their lives destroyed because of fanciful dreams. If you're running, find another place to run to, a place that's better than this"

Giselle stared at him for a long second before she dumped another coin in his hand. "I'll take a room for the night" she said quietly. He gave another grunt pulling the ledger in front of him. "Giselle" Giselle said quietly. "No last name" she said, the barman didn't look as if he was surprised.

That morning Giselle sat and watched the sunlight glitter on the sea for a while before she stood up smoothing down her dress to go and find Max ready to ride him back to Snow White's kingdom. She knew nobody would be looking for her there. She was just one more face in the crowd.

And if she was wiping tears of her face as she did so then...that was her business nobody else's.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Sea Port. The Sea Port Inn (After)

Erik had been working at the tavern now for a long time. Finally he had gotten the last of the crew that came with the Jolly Roger out (sans the Captain) and he looked around grumbling. Gods did these people ever clean after themselves?

Captain Hook was still sat at the bar and his expression that had changed from arrogant humour when he was with his crew had slid back into melancholy.

"Leaving again the morning Captain?" Erik asked despite himself. The Captain forced his eyes up away from his glass and gave Erik a smile that looked rather forced and didn't meet his eyes.

"Aye. Don't want to be on land when this bloody wedding thing happens"

"I hear the Dark One's been captured" Erik said wiping down the bar.

"Aye, but not killed. They won't kill him" Hook replied looking rather board again.

Erik deliberated telling him about the girl. The one that had been in here looking for him.

"There was a girl here looking for you" he said finally. If she was in trouble it wouldn't hurt for him to make sure someone was looking out for her.

The Captain snorted into his rum. "Not like that" Erik elaborated. "Young thing, couldn't have been older than fifteen, well...i'm not entirely sure if she was looking for you, asking all sorts of strange questions about pirates and if they had children and the like...sweet little thing too...running like hell from something though"

"This girl have a name?" Hook asked and Erik paused. His tone had took on something dark and he was looking at Erik with those eyes that were filled with some sort of horrific mixture of hope and agony. For a split second Erik wanted to ask him if the rumours were true...about him murdering that woman on his ship all those years ago...but then he thought of that girl again of what she was running from and how she tired she had looked, so old before her time.

"No" he said finally.

The Captain turned his whole body sagging back to his rum and Erik left the room waking up the night boy to make sure that the Captain got home to his ship and that the doors were locked.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-I** **n Storybrooke Scarlett is desperate to figure out what Regina's cryptic clue meant while Henry takes desperate steps to break the curse and the resounding consequences change Scarlett's life forever. Meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest, Giselle attempts to regain some normality by returning home to her cottage and trying to build a life but talk of a curse and a vision from her father might change all that. End of Season 1.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	8. The Wars To Come

**Hi so finally here is the update and the last chapter that will revolve around Season 1!**

 **Now I know it's been a long time since I've updated but what with work and deadlines I decided to wait a bit longer and post this a bit near Christmas.**

 **So this is the start of Season 2, we will get more Gold, Emma Point of Views and especially Killian as well. Season 2 is a bit longer chapter wise and will cover a lot more ground. Some characters and events mentioned in this chapter as well will be covered in more detail later on. I plan to take this story all the way to Season 5 and right now I am debating Season 6.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing but Giselle/Scarlett and some OCs are mine.**

 **Any spelling or grammar mistakes I apologize.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 8-The Wars To Come

In Storybrooke Scarlett is desperate to figure out what Regina's cryptic clue meant while Henry takes desperate steps to break the curse and the resounding consequences change Scarlett's life forever. Meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest, Giselle attempts to regain some normality by returning home to her cottage and trying to build a life but talk of a curse and a vision from her father might change all that. End of Season 1.

* * *

 ** _In the end it's not the years in your life that counts. It's the life in your years._** **(Abraham Lincoln) **

Storybrooke

Scarlett didn't say anything to her father about Regina, the threat or the fact that she had let slip her Dad had another child. By the time she had got home she was exhausted and it wasn't until she woke up the next morning that she realised that for the first time in a long time she had woken up without the dreams of that damn ship.

Her smile when she greeted her father that morning was genuine.

That didn't mean she wasn't confused about the thing that Regina didn't tell her about but kinda told her about all the same. Scarlett would have to be either stupid or well stupid not to realise the clue about her past, (that she was still struggling to remember) that Regina had given her.

Her father had had another child, a son. That meant Scarlett had a brother somewhere out there, but she realised one night when the headaches got too much and she was taken to prowling across her room until she was finally tired enough to go to sleep.

Scarlett wasn't one to pry into her father's life when it came to his time before she had been adopted, she had never even thought to bring up or ask about what kind of life it had been. Looking back through the hazy memories that she had of her childhood she had realised that she didn't remember a time where her father had ever mentioned anything about his life before he'd adopted Scarlett.

And really, it wasn't like Scarlett could go and find this information out for herself. The Storybrooke Library had been boarded up since...well since as long as she could remember and the town records were no help whatsoever. Also Scarlett knew that there was no way that she would be able to get away with a visit to the town records anyway. Not without either her father or Regina finding out.

And either way, she wasn't sure she could stand the smugness that she would be on the reviving end of if it was the latter nor the questions that would rise if it was the former.

Scarlett's past had been for a long time shrouded in mystery and she wasn't sure if pulling back the curtains was a good idea. One of the reasons she had managed to stay as relatively sane as she thought she was, was that ultimately she had took her father at face value whenever she'd asked about her biological parents. She had put, she realised all of her faith into her father and now Regina was coming along to try and take down the very stable foundations of Scarlett's life brick by bloody brick.

But then again, the possibility of a brother, even if he was lost to her Dad as Regina had said…the idea that there might have been someone out there that given half the chance would have protected Scarlett from the confusion of the previous months was an option she wasn't willing to pass up.

Scarlett had been pondering whether or not to ask her father weather or not he had had another child the morning she found out that Emma and Regina were in the hospital with Henry who had apparently taken sick in the night. The subdued tones at Granny's and the fact that the woman had twice wiped her eyes with a handkerchief provided by Grumpy had spoken volumes. Scarlett had sat in her chair for a second trying to figure out how something terrible could have happened to the sweet kid that she used to babysit when her skin suddenly felt like it was crawling.

She stood up abandoning her cookie and tea and told Leroy in a rather shaky voice (or she really hoped it was not as shaky as it sounded to her) that she was going to go and find her Dad. Leroy had nodded looking for once as sombre as he had done the night Katheryn Nolan's supposed heart had been found in a box, patted her rather awkwardly on her arm and told her not to worry, school didn't seem important he said on a day like today but over the roaring in her eyes Scarlett couldn't hear him.

She managed to make it out to the back of the dinner before she puked up what little breakfast she'd had. This was _Henry_. This was the kid that had made Scarlett think for the first time about her birth parents, this was the kid that had brought her a new almost friend in the form of Emma who was probably out of her mind with worry and the kid who had filled her days with dreams of curses and pirates and a life out of this town that was as strong as it was crazy.

Scarlett stood up tucking her coat around her as the wind blew around her legs. She made it to the door of her Dad's shop the little bell ringing when she saw him at the till. He took one look at her face and then proving that he was without a shadow of a doubt so much better than any alternative he came around the counter wrapped both his arms around her and let the dam of tears that Scarlett had been holding back for as long as Emma Swan had been in town.

"Hush sweetheart" her father said patting down her hair as she cried against his shoulder. "Hush, I promise this won't last long" whatever 'This' was he apparently wasn't going to elaborate on but he allowed Scarlett to cling to him for a few more seconds before he pulled back his hands framing her face through her hair. His face was more serious than Scarlett had ever seen it.

"I need you to understand that whatever happens, whatever you may hear or whatever comes crawling out of the woodwork, I have loved you like my own since the second I got you. You are my daughter and I would do it over again given half the chance, I do love you, very much" he finished his words his hands burning on Scarlett's skin and she found she couldn't answer even if her life was dependant on it. Never in all the years she could remember had she ever remembered her father being this vocal in his love for her, it was something always known but never mentioned.

She nodded once. "I love you too Dad" she said finally blinking. Her Dad nodded and pulled back looking much more like his usual self. "Good" he said briskly. "Go and wait at home for me will you? I have to finish something here and then I think…" he paused as if he was thinking hard about something and then he smiled. "Yes I think she'll have figured something out soon" he shook his head as if pleased.

"I promise" he said smiling "That you will understand soon sweetheart"

Scarlett knew enough to know that it wouldn't do any good to argue and she nodded slipping out the back.

Little did she know she wouldn't even make it home before the world imploded.

Little did she know that this morning had been the last morning where everything had seemed normal.

Little did she know that today would be the last time she would be known as Scarlett Gold.

Little did she know what was really waiting out there on the horizon.

But more on that later.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. Rosanna's Cottage

Giselle had moved back in to her old house. That in itself was strangely painful. She didn't cry when she walked in through the front door and saw the bed perfectly made, the thick coating of dust on the table and the fact that there was no food or wood in the little house.

Work was Giselle realized rather productive. She stripped back to her working dresses that she used to wear when she was living under the care of her godmother and cleaned the house from top to bottom. Finding wood for a small fire was enough and she collapsed into her old bed like nothing had ever changed.

The next morning she forced on her old boots and went for a walk through the village that she had never seen before.

It was remarkable how well the town was coping without her father she realized. The markets were still bright and Giselle took some of the still usable money that she had and bought enough food to last her until she could at least find a job. As what she wasn't sure because realistically most girls her age were either married or they had a trade under their belt. There wasn't much chance that she had either.

Then one night not after one week had passed and the news that Snow White and Prince Charming's wedding was here was just over everything seemed to change.

Giselle had gone down into the village for the wedding feast, something she had never done before. Perhaps noticing that she was lonely a plump woman named Mabel had invited her over to sit down with her husband and nine children. The meal had consisted of numerous stews and several thick crusty slices of bread and enough ale to go around for centuries, once the dancing had broken out the entire village had celebrated by taking each other by the waist and dancing around and around to music that only increasingly got louder and louder.

Giselle had been dancing around the corner of the square when she'd suddenly been pulled into the fray. The music was loud and buzzing and the hands on her waist were warm. She turned around to see the boy not much older than her with his hands pulling her close. Giselle was in her worn purple dress with a stained hem and her hair was loose and wild, she was far from the safe and rich life she'd had as the Dark One's daughter and she found that she couldn't keep the smile of her face. The boy was a foot or so taller than Giselle and his hair was trimmed around his face neatly. He had dark eyes and a smile as he took Giselle and twirled her around for the next dance the two of them laughing as the dancing got more and more exuberant.

They took a break off the floor. Giselle took the offered drink and found herself laughing for the first time in a long time about something that didn't feel forced. "My name's Edmund" the boy muttered pulling Giselle close and Giselle giggled not sure if it was the wine or the dancing that made her press close to him. She was suddenly aware that this was the first male attention she had ever had directed on her from someone that wasn't her father.

"Giselle" she said finally and Edmund smiled once and again took her out onto the dancefloor.

The celebrations went on for the rest of the night and only really ended when the village elders went to bed. That was Giselle realized when all of the _respectable_ people went to their houses and the more rowdy crowd came out to play.

"Edmund" snapped one of the older elders, "Walk your friend home, the average drunk in this town has become even more dimmer in my eyes and I don't like the thought of a young girl walking home on her own, too much happiness has happened in this town since the capture of that creature in the castle for anything to mar it"

There was a shock second where Giselle realized that her father had been mentioned and that she hadn't felt that throb of pain pulsing in her heart but that she determined was for another day. Not on the day that Snow White had finally gotten married and she had finally found some middle ground in her life. Tucking her cloak around her she took Edmund's arm and allowed him to walk her back up to her cottage.

Edmund took in the little light Giselle had left burning giving the appearance of someone who was waiting before nodding. "I hope to call on you sometime in the morning" he grinned as Giselle allowed herself to give away a nod and a small smile. She shut and bolted the door behind her and allowed herself to smile feeling herself blush.

She turned around to stoke up the fire and had just kicked off her cloak and boots her head still dizzy with wine and ale and her skin still feeling like she'd been burned where Edmund had caught her around the waist and spun her around.

"Pretty" said a voice in the corner.

Giselle didn't scream but she did whirl around knife from the mantle tucked into her hand.

Her father, the Dark One was sat at the table watching her over his fingers locked together. Giselle stared for a second before shaking her head. "You're in prison" she said sinking weakly onto a chair.

Her father stared at her. "Of course I am sweetheart" he said gently looking far less devilish than he had the last time they'd seen each other nearly two long months ago.

"I am a vision, inside of your head" he said with a little giggle and a wave. Giselle blew out a breath leaning back and feeling very strange.

"Things" her father said quietly suddenly serious. "Are going to change. Come tomorrow the clock is ticking down to an occasion which will change not only the way the very magic in our bones works but the way the world will be seen. Soon there will be a new world and a new order and I...I am quite comfortable with what's coming" Giselle stared at him not daring to interrupt sliding to her knees in front of him to stare.

"But never forget" her father said his hands finding hers suddenly and the touch was so very real that Giselle nearly took her eyes of her father to look down in shock. "That I love you, you are my child Giselle Jones and nothing and nobody will ever change that"

It was what she had both longed and feared she would never hear. Giselle opened her mouth to say something back but before her very eyes the entire vision or whatever it was seemed to melt away and she was left sitting in the darkness feeling very confused.

Sometime later Giselle would haul herself to bed and fall asleep curled under the blankets but this time it would be on Rosanna's old bed and clutching her blanket again through her fingers.

And her father would be right again. When she woke up the next morning the world would have changed forever.

But more on that later.

* * *

Storybrooke

Scarlett did in fact make it home and she did in fact lock the door. But she waited for a second until she moved to her room and found what she was looking for. Under the box tucked away at the back was the still soft baby blanket she'd been given to her father in a long time ago. The blanket had a look about it that made Scarlett think that it had survived a lot in a little time. Her father had never asked about it and Scarlett had never used it in front of him least it bring up memories that neither one of them wanted to confront. She tucked the blanket back around herself as she sat on the couch her whole body coiled like a spring. She knew she was waiting for something, but she didn't know what.

And so she waited the blanket tucked around her knees for (unknown to many but still known to her) the world to come crashing down around her.

But more on that later.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Village. Rosanna's Cottage.

It was like a coin had been flipped and overnight the world had gone from bright and hopeful to dark and murky. Overnight something had happened and it became clear to Giselle that it was something terrible as soon as she walked down to the village to collect her food for the week and to see if the local seamstresses needed any work.

The entire village was closely guarded muttering frequent among the few people that were out. Giselle was handed her cheese, bread, meat and wine silently from the different merchants and it wasn't until she stepped into the tavern to find out just what the hell was going on that she realised how packed and yet how hushed the main room was.

She took a seat at the bar tucking her hands into her sleeves. Nobody had recognised her when she'd come to stay but there had been rumours that someone had been living in the Dark Castle other than that insipid housekeeper her father had panted over like a teenager (Giselle inwardly rolled her eyes when thinking about Belle) but for once the attention was on one of the passing soldiers who was telling everyone about some kind of curse.

"The Evil Queen showed up at the wedding last night" came a voice to her left. Giselle jumped and she turned to see Edmund clutching his long knife almost like a sword and looking pale and ill. "She told Snow White about a powerful curse coming for all of us that will ruin our happy endings. And then apparently she unleashed a plague"

Giselle thought it was unlikely considering plague hit the Enchanted Forest every two years depending on how fast the rats could get off the pirate ships and spread their disease but she didn't want to comment on that. Her mind was on the vision she'd had the previous night and her father. He had warned her that something was going to happen. Edmund caught her expression which Giselle could see from the pewter jug on the table was a strange combination of blankness compared to the glee that was bubbling inside of her. So it seemed she would be reunited with her father at least in another life.

"Don't worry" he said jerking his head at the gossips listening to the solider. "Apparently Snow White is going to save the day…again"

The little snort that Giselle had been trying to quieten escaped. Edmund grinned swinging the knife he had in his hand gently. "I don't suppose you want to go for a walk and I could give you a lesson on how to slit the Evil Queen's throat"

Giselle laughed but shrugged nonetheless. Really, until they found out whether or not this curse was true then what did it matter what she did?

Were they not they all on borrowed time in the end anyway?

Nine long months later they found out.

The gossip had been torn between the news that the curse was in fact real and the fact that apparently Snow White was pregnant. The older woman in the village made gloves and little blankets for the infant a thing in which Giselle couldn't understand. She had taken to helping the local midwife Daisy with her supplies, it paid a pittance but it was her own money and she earned it fair.

Like Edmund had predicted plague had come and he had died of it.

(But more on that later)

Giselle for the most part had spent the entire three months after the plague waiting on tender hooks. There was no doubt in her mind that this curse was real and coming and she found herself torn between fear and irritation whenever it came to it. She missed her father of course but she had built a life for herself here and she was somewhat happy. There would always be a little piece missing but she had long ago reconciled with that.

Then one night it happened.

Giselle had been sat in front of the fire. Something had told her to lock away any valuables that night and while she didn't have much she locked away the baby blanket she'd been found in and the hairpin that Rosanna had given her for the last birthday they'd had together. She then pulled on her boots, tucked her cloak around her and sat down staring into the flames and feeling the wind get louder and louder. For once she wasn't scared of whatever was coming. Unlike members of the town who had been terrified Giselle was calm. That in itself was unnerving to her.

The wind picked up somewhat and Giselle knew that it was only a matter of time.

The door blew open at that moment and the dark swirls of pure magic were engulfing the whole village before her. Giselle smiled once grimly and then…

(In Storybrooke Scarlett Gold woke up with a start)

* * *

Storybrooke

Scarlett had been sat on the couch until her legs had felt numb and then she walked into the kitchen. The sky was dark and there was still no sign of her Dad but she sat on the kitchen floor for a while until the cold tiles became too much and ten she paced around again.

It was lie the whole town was in limbo, even if they didn't realise it, something had been counting down since Emma Swan had rolled into town and time was finally not on side.

Even the very air stayed static for a split second.

And then it happened.

Scarlett had been stood in the kitchen when the sky got light and the wind picked up, she yanked open the back door into the harsh light and stared out into the morning.

Without warning there was a huge gust of wind. It knocked into Scarlett blowing back her hair and the force of it was punched through her body. She blinked looking back up at the sky in shock and then there was the realisation that made her laugh for the first time in days.

Giselle. Her name was Giselle Jones. She was fifteen years old and she was the daughter of Rumplestilskin otherwise known as the Dark One. She tipped back her head and breathed in the post curse air.

This she thought still smiling explained everything. Emma Swan had been the child of Snow White and Prince Charming. Her father had become the most powerful man in the world like he had done so in their world and Giselle could finally be open about her place in his life.

She turned around in a little circle giggling. She was Giselle Jones. It seemed strange, when she had woken up this morning she was Scarlett Gold who had lived a privileged if not somewhat lonely life and now she was Giselle Jones, she had always been comfortable with herself as Giselle. It was hard to think of this morning and all the mornings before her when she'd been someone else living someone else's life. But that was another story for another time.

There were several stories for another time.

Giselle took a second to stare out at the back garden she remembered from Scarlett's memories playing in when she was a child. She turned to go back into the house everything bright and shiny again and she turned to grab the bottle of wine of the counter. If there was ever a time to have a drink it was now.

She poured herself a glass of wine. It was the start of her new life in Storybrooke as Giselle Jones, gone was her life in the Enchanted Forest and gone was the life she had led as Scarlett Gold.

And just as she was about to drink she saw the dark purple clouds from the window steam across the town with a purpose. Giselle couldn't help but laugh, she giggled again and again as the cloud came closer. She should have known her father would have something else up her sleeve and she should have known that it would involve magic. To her independence was power, to him it was always magic. It had always been magic.

The clouds were seeping into the trees and Giselle took a sip as the purple smoke was coming closer and she felt herself grin wider feeling more alive than she had done in a long time.

The smoke curled through the window no barrier stopping it and Giselle closed her eyes feeling it consume her, the thrumming in her blood and veins that came with the renewal of something that had been dead for a long time.

Magic was coming.

* * *

The Jolly Roger. The Seas of the Enchanted Forest

The ship was surrounded in darkness the waves beating against the wood gently rocking the ship side to side in an almost soothing kind of way.

The ship and what was left of the land and it's occupants had no idea what had happened in the town of Storybrooke but one man whose dreams (though they always were centralized on the same person) were plagued with the figure of the girl stood at the window her expression alive suddenly woke up with a start the exact time as the cloud of purple magic hit Giselle Jones kitchen window.

There was a second where he thought that nothing had changed and then the man realised again what had been took from him. However instead of curling back into his bed he sat up and pulled on his boots and reached for the hook lying on the small cabinet.

Killian Jones had revenge on his mind.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Giselle attempts to understand the events of the last twenty eight years but her happiness and confusion are soon interrupted by the arrival of someone she had long ago thought dead and gone and soon she must learn to live her life in the open as the recognised daughter of The Dark One**

 **And let me know what you think.**


	9. It's A Wonderful 'Lie'

**Hi so here is another chapter, I am uploading this a little bit more near Christmas along with Chapter 8.**

 **We are now officially in Season 2 which means we branch out a bit more into other people's opinions and points of view. Therefore in Season 2 there will be Emma, Rumple and Killian's point of view as well as Giselle unlike Season 1's chapters which will be more focused on Giselle/Scarlett's point of view.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **And If I don't get to update before hand I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe 2017.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 9-It's A Wonderful 'Lie'

Giselle attempts to understand the events of the last twenty eight years but her happiness and confusion are soon interrupted by the arrival of someone she had long ago thought dead and gone and soon she must learn to live her life in the open as the recognised daughter of The Dark One

* * *

 ** _'_** ** _Each relationship nurtures the a strength or a weakness within you'_** **(Michael Murdock)**

Storybrooke.

It took nearly four hours after the curse had been broken for Giselle's father to come home. She had drank most of the bottle of wine since the dark cloud of magic had descended on the town and as much as she had wanted to go outside and see the rest of the world in its own clear new light she was reminded of her father's instructions to wait. And in truth it was probably for the best. Her father was the Dark One and she was now out in the open as his daughter.

Even if the Evil Queen was busy Giselle supposed that Snow White wouldn't be. God that was Mary Margaret Blanchard now. Giselle at that point poured herself her second glass of wine.

The door choose that moment to open and Giselle slid of her chair her bare feet hitting the counter, she grabbed her baby blanket and stuffed it into her school bag which was strewn across the kitchen floor. It would do no good for her father to see that.

There was movement in the doorway and Giselle stood up turning around. It was her father standing in the doorway and Giselle noticed that he wasn't limping or that he was carrying his walking stick. There was a second where they stood looking at each other and then his face broke into a smile.

Giselle half ran around the table and half threw herself into his arms. Her Dad laughed and wrapped both arms around her pulling him close to her. Giselle wrapped both arms around his neck and hid her face in his neck like she used to do when she was little on the nights that she would have a nightmare.

Her father wasn't as scaly as he had been at that time she realised. Not that that would have bothered her that much back then, and it didn't bother her now.

Even though they had lived twenty eight years as father and daughter Giselle was still very well aware of the fact that they hadn't seen each other since that morning where he had left to go and run the errand for Cinderella that had resulted in his capture.

"My you got tall" he said releasing her. Giselle grinned "You got less..." she gestured and her father laughed, the real laugh that he reserved for her only.

"I suppose I did" he said grinning. "Giselle" he said smiling again. "Oh I did miss you in prison" he said smiling and Giselle felt herself beaming back. She had missed this too.

The door shut again and Giselle turned around. "Are we expecting someone else?" she said and was surprised when her father smiled a strange, wicked sort of smile. There was a second where Giselle felt a sense of foreboding and then her father spoke again.

"I have someone to re-introduce to you" he said beaming. "She's alive" he beamed again. "I didn't think that she was but Regina concocts revenge in many mysterious ways"

Giselle stared at him for a long second before a figure moved out of the shadows and came into view. She felt her jaw drop and her stomach swoop straight out of her body. There was a second where she was stunned into silence and then a cold sense of dread swept through her that she couldn't explain.

Because there, standing in the doorway watching her with a same sense of wariness that Giselle knew that she was feeling was Belle.

There was a second where both woman stared at each other. Belle had changed too Giselle noticed with a sense of smugness. Her hair was unkempt and her dress was ragged. She had aged in her years in captivity much the way Giselle had, there was an age to her that she hadn't had in the Dark Castle. Still she met Giselle eye for eye, challenge for challenge just as she always had.

"You were supposed to be dead" Giselle said by way of a greeting. There was a second where Belle stared at her again and then she nodded. "Regina locked me up in the asylum but...i'm here now" she gave a small smile and Giselle resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the look on her father's face with horrible difficulty.

"Belle has agreed to stay with us for a while" he said beaming again and Giselle raised an eyebrow trying to control the part of her that wanted to scream. She had lived with Belle once before and they had barely gotten over her presence before her father had been imprisoned. Now, when it was just the two of them she was expected to live again with the woman that had dominated Giselle's life at a time where she had already been grieving for the one mother figure she had, had in her life.

"She's what now?" she asked before she caught Belle's expression. If Belle remembered how Giselle had felt about her she wasn't showing it in her face but Giselle had always been good at hiding her emotions when it came to living in that Castle. With her father and his unpredictable temper she had learned how to control hers.

Giselle flicked her eyes between the two of them and then asked the one question that she had never thought she would ask.

"Are you...together now...?"

Her father was now really smirking and Belle had blushed delicately as if she thought such questions were beneath her. "We will not be sharing the same beds tonight" her father said delicately. "We can all talk more in the morning"

Then there was a large bang that reverberated throughout the whole town. Giselle stared up at the shaking ceiling light and didn't know whether or not to be amused or exasperated. She noticed that the smile had fallen off Belle's face and into a rather reproving look.

"What did you do?" she asked feeling a wicked little thrill of glee coming on. Her father had the decency to not grin reaching around for two other wine glasses.

"Little gift to the Queen" was all he said.

"Trust me" Belle said quietly. "That's all you want to know"

It was only because she was tired and in need of some food that Giselle let the subject drop.

The next day the town looked like a bombsite.

Giselle had fallen asleep late. Everything in her room looked different and her father had taken to sitting in the living room with Belle giggling and talking and doing the Lord only knew what else and that had made her grumpy and miserable.

She got up the next morning and tied back her long hair in a high ponytail. She found her decent blue jeans and her red jumper and her boots and grabbed her bag, she made it out the door without anyone knowing she was gone and she left a note on the table telling her father where she was should he wake up and worry.

She made it to the Main Street and swore. Whatever it was that had attacked last night had left huge craters in the street. Debris was everywhere and people were running around looking lost and confused. The sensation of realising that the last twenty eight years of your life were a lie was not pleasant of that Giselle could identify with.

She had just made it through the throngs of people nearing the front (though most of them just seemed to melt away whenever she came near them) when someone shouted "Scarlett" the use of her old name jarred her for a second and then Giselle felt someone throw themselves at her in a bone crushing hug. There was a second where she was stunned into silence and then she recognised the brown head of hair that was just under her chin.

Henry.

"Henry" she said something warming her very deep inside. He had survived and Giselle was honestly glad to see it.

"I did it" Henry said pulling back and grinning. "Mom did it"

Giselle nodded. Emma Swan had certainly 'done it' alright.

"It's Giselle now kiddo" she said pulling back and Henry nodded pulling out his notepad diligently and writing down her name.

"I still can't find you" he said looking miffed. Giselle laughed. "I didn't think so" she said truthfully. "I've never done anything worth being in that book"

Henry smiled once.

"Henry" said a voice and Giselle turned to see David Nolan...now Prince Charming hurrying towards them looking tense. "What did I tell you about running off like that?"

"Sorry" Henry said not looking too sorry at all.

"But look" he said point ing at her. "I found Scar...Giselle" he said finally.

David Nolan stared at her. Giselle could tell he was trying to figure out whether or not he had met her in the Dark Castle and she met his gaze evenly.

"The Dark One's daughter" he said finally. Giselle smirked at him.

"Missed me didn't you" she said just as softly. She couldn't pretend she wasn't pleased by his irritable expression. She had lived and suffered long bouts of loneliness under the guise that Regina or the Charming's could have found her and used her against her father and she remembered all too clearly that night she had been forced out of her home because the Charming's had captured her father.

"Where's Emma?" she asked turning around to see if she could see the familiar head of blonde hair that belonged to the woman that had saved them, apparently.

Henry's smile fell and Charming looked like someone had grabbed him by the balls and not let go. "They fell through a portal" Henry said sadly. "Hey does your Dad know how to get them out?" he asked looking animated again.

Giselle stared at him then shrugged. "Maybe" she said and Henry half smiled running off to help some friend and leaving Giselle and Charming standing awkwardly together.

"Charming?" Giselle asked quirking and eyebrow. She had heard rumours of the man's nickname and was more than pleased to see him grin back at her, God he had a great smile.

"Giselle Gold?" he asked. Giselle paused. She had never been Giselle Gold and as much as she craved the identity of being safe under the Gold name she wouldn't tempt fate. "Jones" she said finally, she had been Jones long before this curse and she imagined she would be a Jones until the day she died.

"Giselle Jones" she said finally. Charming stared at her for a second. "Adopted?" he asked softly. Giselle nodded. Charming snorted. "Are you really?" he asked casually. "Or are you one of his deals?"

Giselle turned to him. "I am pretty certain" she said firmly and coldly. "That my biological father was going to murder me, I know he murdered my mother and broke apart my half-brother's family. I might be a deal or not but at least I'm not some corpse thrown over the side of a pirate ship"

Charming stared at her for a long time before he sighed uncrossing his arms. "Did he tell you that too?" he asked softly. Giselle stared at him for a long time and then turned around. "Hope you get your family back" she said shortly resisting the urge to flip him off. "I already got mine"

And with that she turned and walked away resolutely not looking back.

Bloody Charming's she thought irritably as she walked away.

* * *

The Jolly Roger. The Enchanted Forest.

The air was cold and the wind was perfect for sailing. It was like that day so many years ago that Killian Jones preferred not to think about but could never forget no matter how hard he tried.

He didn't know why he was here but he knew that it had something to do with Cora. The woman and witch (two separate distinctions in his opinion) had demanded his presence and as much as he was prepared to ignore her there was something about this time that he couldn't.

There had been rumours. There had always been rumours, of a world where the rest of the Enchanted Forest had gone to. There had been rumours where they had landed and the rumours had always swirled around _him_.

Gods if he was alive... if Killian could get revenge for the death of his...

Because there was no way that his baby was still...

But going down that road when it wasn't his nightmares was _too_ painful.

So Killian Jones would take another breath like he had done so since that day those fifteen years ago (and God had it really been that long...?) and pretend not to think about his baby girl as he waited for the woman that could finally help him get his revenge.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-As Emma wakes up in a strange new land with strange new people she comes across a man with sad eyes that she thinks she's seen before and an even sadder story (but more on that later) while in Storybrooke Giselle wonders if her biological father ended up in Storybrooke leading to a heart to heart with Prince Charming himself.**

 **Next chapter will introduce Hook so beware some episodes will jump and some plotlines might be admitted.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	10. The Camp

**Hi, here is another chapter, our first one of 2017 and the first to feature Emma's point of view so I hope you all enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **I think I am at the minute going to end this story at Season 5. Depending on how Season 6 goes but I think odds are it will end at Season 5, I am giving you all that warning.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 10-The Camp

As Emma wakes up in a strange new land with strange new people, she comes across a man with sad eyes that she thinks she's seen before and an even sadder story (but more on that later) meanwhile in Storybrooke Giselle wonders if her biological father came through with the curse leading to a heart to heart with Prince Charming himself.

* * *

 ** _"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent."_** **(J. Robert Oppenheimer)**

The Camp. The Hole. The Enchanted Forest

The first thing that Emma realised when she woke up was that the ground was hard, cold and wet. Then she looked up and saw mud turning into hard walls with a whole at the top showing a thin, week strip of blue that showed the skies of the Enchanted Forest.

Oh, holy shit. The Curse, Regina, Henry, her Mom and Dad...

 _Her Mom and Dad._

That was a particular mind-field that she wasn't sure if she wanted to cross just yet. Not while there were more important things to do. Like survive.

No she wasn't sure what she was gonna do about that, not while she was still sober. Not when Regina was back in Storybrooke with Regina.

Rationally a part of Emma's brain told her that people that did care about her son were with him. David, now her father was with him.

(Good Lord that was even worse than the fact that Mary Margaret was now her mother or did that make it better?)

However there was Ruby, there was Granny, there was even Scarlett though if Emma was to believe everything that she had heard about Gold...then she should be worried. As she sat up and winced at the cracking of her back she considered the thought of how Gold had brought up such a nice, respectable girl such as Scarlett. Then she remembered Scarlett's haunted dark eyes and why Emma thought she reminded her of herself.

She wondered briefly as she stood up and brushed dirt and twigs out of her hair weather or not Scarlett would find her biological father in Storybrooke. Emma had read heavily between the lines and done some private digging around the town and she suspected that Scarlett's biological mother had been murdered by her biological father. How she had fallen into Gold's hands or Rumplestilskin as he was now apparently known as she didn't want to think.

Then something in the darkness moved and Emma stepped half over her mother's body (and oh that wasn't going to be strange for a while) and stood to see who was standing there looking regal and composed. For a split second she thought it was Regina. But then the woman came out of the shadows.

And that was when the trouble started.

* * *

Storybrooke

So it seemed they couldn't cross the town line without losing their memories. There was a second where Giselle felt disheartened and then she felt glee spread through her veins. Storybrooke was her home at least for the last twenty eight years and she was more than comfortable with staying in her grand house (not as grand as her castle) and living a comfortable life with heating and water.

Then came the news that filtered through the town like water. It reminded Giselle much of how it was when her father had been imprisoned and the gossip had run amuck until there was nothing sacred anymore. Well, perhaps she was the one exception to that fact considering it seemed that nobody knew that she had existed.

The Enchanted Forest was still there, it was ruined, broken, destroyed and ripped apart, filled with Dark Magic and horror but it was there. Only thing was they couldn't get to it. As the days grew on her father managed to extract a conversation out of David Nolan that might have been more one sided than he would let on and came home with that pensive look on his face and a snarl in his tone whenever he spoke. Even with Belle. Whatever had happened her father had been disappointed by the results and that was plain to see.

But there was one factor that hadn't changed.

It soon became apparent that her biological father wasn't in Storybrooke. The fact that she was now exposed as the Dark One's daughter ensured that she was now known to the town. Therefore if there was anything dark coming out of the woodwork it would have done so now, when they knew that they could gain easy access.

Unless Giselle was reading into this wrong, as the days went by it appeared that her father wasn't in Storybrooke. Of course that meant nothing, her half-brother it seemed wasn't in Storybrooke either. Giselle didn't really know much about him. She would sit in her room well into the night and the morning and think long and hard about everything she had ever been told or for the most part learned about her birth family. She knew that her half-brother was her father's child, they shared the same mother after all but looking at her father now she didn't thinks he wanted to mention it.

Could her birth father be in the Enchanted Forest still? Granted it was now a land that had gone to shit but could he still be there?

Giselle's first thought was good. Then her second one made her feel irritable and long suffering. If her father wasn't in Storybrooke then on the one hand she was safe. If her father wasn't in Storybrooke however then she couldn't get either answers or revenge.

And the truth of the matter was that if her previous behaviour was anything to go by then she wouldn't get revenge. There was a second where she entertained the thought of killing the unnamed, no faced monster that had dominated her nightmares for most of her life. But the other part of her knew that she couldn't do that again. She wasn't sure if she had ever had that in her. Giselle gained headaches trying to figure out what was happening and who was what.

School had not yet started back up again. Even the teachers were still gaining their bearings in this new world they were in. therefore days were spent still helping the children find their parents still and for the most part helping herself to the free coffee that Granny was giving out to anyone she recognised. Giselle suspected that it might be the old woman that had kept people from asking her questions, therefore she took her free mug of coffee with whatever syrup Granny was trying to throw away and found a nice quiet place to sit and watch the chaos. And if she tried not to think about things that had long ago become painful then that was just on her.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) depending on how you thought about it she was interrupted. By David Nolan, or should she called him Prince Charming? God everything was so confusing. There was a second where she still looked up and the shadow of the man that had hunted her father down, stared at her but she met his gaze without flinching, something which she was proud of.

David Nolan sat down on the other chair over the small table. Giselle shifted her small journal, the tatty leather bound book with an embroidered cover that she had done herself once a long time ago. There was a second where they stared at each other and then he smiled. He really did have a nice smile Giselle thought and she also noticed he looked rather tired. His daughter and wife were gone and he was battling Regina for custody of his grandson who had brought this curse to its end.

"I was looking for some company" he confessed and he looked almost abashed. Giselle understood what it was like to want company but be swallowed up by some national crises. She passed him her paper cup of coffee and David took a small sip of it.

"Good Lord" he said coughing slightly. "I don't know what the hell you put in that but I don't want any more of it" he said. Giselle flashed him a brief smile before an idea came to mind that she felt she had to speak aloud.

"I don't snitch on my father if you're here for information" she said finally but David shook his head.

"I don't wanna talk to you about the Dark One, I still can't get over the fact that I didn't know you existed." He shook his head and Giselle saw that he even looked amused by the thought that she had remained secret for so long. Giselle could never understand what the point was of the Charming's.

"You look tired" she observed and David Nolan's face seemed to fall even more. Giselle put down her pen and stared at him before taking another gulp of coffee. He caught what must have been her expression and grinned again looking a bit more like the charming man that she had once known as the coma patient.

"Between Henry and making sure that everyone knows who they are in the town, and then are reunited with their families I haven't had the time to sleep" he confessed. Giselle personally thought that he had, had the time to sleep but hadn't because he was missing his family too much to sleep. She nodded casually trying to think of something to say but she wasn't sure.

"How's that going?" she asked and David shrugged. "Most of the kids are back home with their real parents but some of them were with other families and their confused and then that leads to more questions..." he shook his head and Giselle could understand why he was struggling. She still hadn't wrapped her head around it herself and she had always been in the same place. She had never woke up one morning with one family and then had to go home with another.

"Are you alright?" he asked and Giselle shrugged. She swallowed again and then looked up to see David Nolan watching her with those wide open blue eyes. "I don't know" she said truthfully and he nodded as if he understood where she was coming from. Giselle tried not to notice the fact that when he smiled he showed his dimples.

"So Henry told me you were adopted" he said conversationally and Giselle blinked, trying and failing to not be surprised by what Henry had told his grandfather.

"Yeah" she said finally. "I am"

"Have you found your birth parents?" he asked and Giselle shook her head. "It's just my father" she said smiling tightly. "My birth mother is dead" she paused trying to think of how much she really wanted to tell the crown Prince. "She was killed by my birth father" she said finally.

David choked on his own spit trying to pretend that he wasn't shocked. Giselle looked back down at the table and pretended that she didn't notice. There was a second where he tried to think of the words to say before he came out with "Is he here?"

Giselle shrugged. "I don't know" she said finally. "I don't think so" she looked back down at her hands "I hope not" she confessed and David nodded shooting her an apprising kind of look. "You don't have to sit with me" she said when she saw he had no intention of moving.

David Nolan smiled his smile so gentle and so impossibly fatherly that Giselle had to look away before her eyes filled with the tears that had always been so close to the surface. If there was someone that was born to be a father then it was clear that it was David Nolan, Prince Charming himself.

"I know" he said gently. "I'm gonna go and get us some more coffee"

And they sat there for most of the morning both of them lost in their own thoughts and stuck with the images of their own families.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Camp.

In the aftermath of that emotional horror that had been the nursery Emma had been rather subdued as they walked back to the camp. Thankfully Mary Margaret had been just as silent perhaps realising that Emma really didn't want to talk right now.

Then they saw the carnage that Cora had done on the good people that had survived years of ogre attacks and a curse that had stripped the land barren.

Like mother like daughter it seemed.

There was movement among the dead and Emma turned to see eyes staring out of a rather handsome face. The man was rugged and tall and had the look of someone that had lost so much that there were times when he didn't have anything to do but sit and wonder about what he had suffered. Emma knew the feeling all too well.

He looked up at her with eyes that Emma thought she had seen briefly and for a second darker, longer hair flew in front of her vision and a laugh and eyes that were almost identical. For a second she thought of...no...No she was seeing things...

And that was really when the trouble started and two women's lives would never be the same again.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Emma and Snow meet a man with sad eyes and as they climb a beanstalk Emma learns of an even sadder story that will blow apart the life of a woman that she likes deeply. Meanwhile we learn of Captain Hook's story both before and after that fateful day on his ship when the world was ripped away from him (first Hook's point of view)**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	11. The Pirate's Story

**Hi so here is the latest chapter and finally we reach Killian's perspective and I can tell you there are three more chapters and then we reach Killian and Giselle's first meeting.**

 **I hope you all enjoy, for some reason I found Killian's point of view difficult at times during this chapter so please keep that in mind as well. Any questions please feel free to ask.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine but Giselle**

 **Please Read and Review**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 11-The Pirate's Story

Emma and Snow meet a man with sad eyes and as they climb a beanstalk Emma learns of an even sadder story that will blow apart the life of a woman that she likes deeply. Meanwhile we learn of Captain Hook's story both before and after that fateful day on his ship when the world was ripped away from him (first Hook's point of view)

* * *

 ** _The past cannot be cured_** **(Queen Elizabeth I)**

The Jolly Roger. At Sea. Unknown Waters.

He had been stupid. So, so stupid. In all his years on this earth as both loyal sailor and corrupt pirate he had never been so or less prepared for this.

Oh materially he was prepared, how could he not? But emotionally? Mentally, physically? Love was one of those dangerous weakness and he loathed weakness. Until she had come along.

To understand how this came about one has to understand what happened. You've all heard one side of the story and not the other one and that was what later on would kill him, there would be many things that came with the arrival of Emma Swan but the lack of truth to his story, to that part of his story was the one that would hurt the most.

To understand this we are taken to a cabin in the Jolly Roger way out to sea. It's night when this happens and cold for it was a cold season, the date and time nobody was sure of, not until it was too late.

In this cabin there are the sounds of a woman screaming. The sounds are so loud that most of the crew that are still at work on the ship flinch whenever one gets too loud and more than one of them don't like the idea of sailing when a woman is about to give birth, such are thesuperstitions of a woman at sea.

However the woman about to give birth to her second child is not the subject of this story. Rather the man outside their door is, he's tall with ruggedly handsome looks, dark eyes and dark hair and the look of a man who has lost much and doesn't believe he deserves anymore favours.

The man is the Captain of this ship. He is the lover of the woman inside and the father of the child about to be born and more importantly a hero masquerading as a villain. His name is Killian Jones.

* * *

Killian Jones was not pacing and he was not nervous. He wanted that to be known. But he couldn't help it either way. He had never expected this. He had never planned on being a father but then fate had never been kind to him.

When Milah had told him that he was to become a father his first thought had been joy, then the panic had crept in, he lived a life full of danger and more often or not on the run, even so it wasn't a life for a babe, but Milah would not hear of them being parted. She also would not hear for the child being given up for adoption, indeed she spent most of her pregnancy knitting what looked like a white blanket edging it out in pink.

"I don't think our boy will like that" Killian said one night in their bed. Milah's belly was just beginning to swell and he found himself rather fascinated by the thought that there was a child growing inside there.

Milah shot him a look. "I don't think it will be a boy" she said finally. "I think it's a girl, I remember Bae" her face crumpled with pain for a split second and then she carried on as if nothing had happened, Killian had learned a long time ago to indulge her when this happened. "He didn't kick as much as this. You have one feisty little girl coming Captain"

She shot him a look then her face contemplative. "You don't mind if we have a girl do you?" she asked quietly. Killian who knew where she was coming from smiled once. "I'd love a boy or a girl, I don't mind which so long as it is healthy and happy and you survive the birth"

And that was the end of that discussion.

 _(Insert a break of about three months)_

Someone, Gods knew who had decided that Perkins the rather old quartermaster that liked more than his fair share of the rum, was the only competent medic on board and it was he that was in there with Milah who had banned him from the room somewhere between the third and the fourth hour of labour, they were now nearing the sixth one and Killian's nerves were beginning to feel frayed.

Then suddenly the screaming stopped and there was a split second that seemed to go on for an eternity. Then there was the thin weedy cry of a baby. Killian half slumped across the wall his knees going weak with relief. He was a _father_. Holy shit.

The door opened and Perkins came out staggering slightly. "Aye Captain" he said with a horrible toothless grin. "You have yourself a fine looking baby girl"

Baby girl...he had a _daughter_.

He let out a short laugh and passed Perkins his rum flask, he was dimly aware of his voice telling him to go and find the crew and let them know there was a baby on board and that they could all have a drink.

And then he went into the room and didn't look back.

Milah looked drained but still so beautiful. Curled up In her arms was the baby, Kilian could see she had a small sprinkling of dark hair on her head and when she opened her eyes they were dark, she had tiny figures that caught on his hand and he was just _gone_.

They decided on the name. Giselle. And Giselle Jones she was.

* * *

The Jolly Roger. Three Months Later.

Milah was dead. Milah was dead and he had no hand and his daughter was trapped in the arms of a madman and it was all his fault.

He had taunted the Dark One a long time ago, had called him a coward and even now the man was still using magic to fight his battles. He wanted to scream but he wasn't sure what would leave his throat.

Milah was dead.

His hand was gone.

Giselle was in the arms of that Crocodile.

His baby, Giselle, his sweet little girl that had never done anyone any harm, this was the baby that would always have a smile for him whenever he picked her up and whose tiny fingers would clasp the chains around his neck.

He wanted to beg. Everything be damned in that instant he would have done. He looked up but he couldn't hear what the Dark One was saying, he turned away dramatically and Killian lurched forwards something desperate and pained forcing it's way out of his throat.

 _"_ _Giselle!"_

But the Dark One and his daughter were already gone, Milah was dead on the floor and Killian would have given everything to join her rather than feel pain like this.

* * *

The Top of the Beanstalk (Killian's Perspective)

Emma Swan was an interesting creature. Killian shot looks at her as they climbed to the top of the beanstalk. She was beautiful of that even he, so long ago swearing off women after losing the two that he loved more than life could recognise.

She had a fire about her as well. That was burning bright, a love and need to protect her child that Killian could understand only too well and a broken quality he could understand that she wouldn't let change her. She had walls to rival his and he hadn't let anyone in in a long time.

He wasn't even sure why he was helping her. Cora had been the best option to getting to Storybrooke or wherever it was that held the long ago object of his revenge. However if this got him there quicker then he wasn't complaining.

Emma Swan staggered upright cutting herself on the glass that was strewn around the floor at the top of the beanstalk. Killian pulled her up reaching for the rag he had in one of his numerous coat pockets and wrapping it around her wound. In doing so his sleeve showed his arm. The tattoo he had for Milah was prominent there and he knew from the way her eyes widened that she had seen it.

"Whose Milah?" she asked her head tilting to the side. Killian shrugged slightly not wanting to get into it. He never spoke about Milah and he never planned to. To speak about her was to admit that he had failed her. He never spoke about his other tattoo though he traced the name over and over again whenever he had a moment.

"Someone I lost a long time ago" he said finally. Emma stared at him for a second her gaze confused before clarity seemed to take hold, and Killian knew what was coming. He had let slip this morning when they had first met why he was helping them, he wanted revenge for the woman he loved, the woman that was killed and his daughter that was taken.

"Gold" she said and Killian paused remembering that in this new world that everyone had been sent to the Crocodile had a new name. "Rumplestilskin" she corrected herself. "He took your...he took more than your hand didn't he?" she finished lamely.

"Aye" he said softly. "He took a bit more, he took the woman I love and the daughter that we had together" he moved his shirt down with one corner of his hook so that Emma Swan could come closer and read the long swirling 'G' that was so close to his heart.

"Your daughter?" she asked, Killian nodded heavily. "Giselle" he said finally. "He took her from me, when she was just a baby" he sat down heavily on what once might have been a giant's chair that had now been reduced to nothing but large rubble.

Swan sat down next to him watching him as he took a large gulp of rum. She seemed to be thinking hard about something. "Is she dead too?" she asked finally. Killian shrugged, it was one of the worst and the best things about not knowing. On his worst nights there was always the illusion of some sought of hope to cling too.

"I don't know" he said finally. "I think she must be" it wasn't even painful to admit anymore he thought dimly taking another swig of rum.

Emma stared at him. "How old" she said cautiously. "Do you think she would have been when the curse was cast?"

Killian stared at her. "Fifteen, sixteen maybe, if she was alive" he said blinking "What the hell has that got to do with anything?" he thought he had a slight inkling of where she was going with this and it made his skin feel like it was on fire. He had agonised long and hard about this curse, he'd had hope and then had to crush it down again.

 _Agony_ was not really a word for what he had been through over the last few decades or so.

Emma was now watching him with a strange expression. She seemed to be debating whether she wanted to tell him something. Eventually she gave a long sigh after shooting him yet another suspicious look.

He felt suddenly as if he was on the verge of something life changing.

"In our world" she said finally. "He, Gold, Rumpelstiltskin…whatever he's called, has a daughter"

Something caught in Killian's throat and he felt like he was about to have the world thrown out from him. It was hard to put into words what he was feeling, he was half-desperate for Emma Swan to continue but was also desperate that she stop, if she was going where he thought she was going and she was wrong…

Well…he didn't think life would be worth living…

Emma apparently took his silence as permission to keep speaking.

"She's about sixteen" she finished lamely. "And all she knows is that she was adopted" she paused looking down at her hands and when she looked up for a split second that lasted too long her eyes were filled with an emotion he had never seen on her face. Pity.

But Killian was staring without seeing and he was listening without hearing because all he could feel was the thumping of his heart as it banged against his ribcage with a beat that seemed louder and more violent than ever before.

He wasn't sure if words were going to ever force themselves out of his mouth, he had just been offered the best hope he'd ever had and he wasn't sure how much he believed in hope, however if for a second his baby girl could be alive…

Whatever he was going to say he never found out because at that precise moment the giant decided to make himself noticed, and Swan with all the tact of a woman that had lived hard and didn't trust as far as she could throw a stone stabbed him in the back by chaining him up to die after giving him the most valuable piece of information he could ever receive.

Somehow, someway, Kilian was getting to the town known as Storybrooke.

* * *

The Bottom of the Beanstalk (Emma's Perspective)

 _'_ _Why does Captain Hook want to go to Storybrooke?'_

 _'_ _To exact revenge on the man that took my hand and my daughter'_

In hindsight it was a wonder that she was surprised.

Emma had known from the beginning that Gold was manipulative, dangerous and cunning in a way that she had never experienced before. The worst thing was however was that a part of her wanted to help Hook get his revenge. She had endured through all of Regina's antics because Henry had been right there in front of her, she could not imagine what he had been through, fifteen years or so before the curse and then the twenty-eight that they had lived through.

It had taken her longer than she would have liked to put the pieces together.

The way Hook had said his daughter's name _"Giselle"_ with such love colouring his tone there was no way that he would have ever tried to kill her, perhaps that had been a lie as well?

She had told him that Gold had a daughter, had watched those eyes fill with something that looked like hope before he squashed it down again and she could understand why, why would he hope for something that he had long ago believed impossible.

Ok, maybe Scarlett wasn't Giselle, she wouldn't know that until she was back in town but what if she was? It certainly fit. There was the fact that she fit the age, looking back she even looked somewhat like Hook as well. There was the fact that Gold was certainly manipulative enough.

Shit if she was right. Should she tell her?

Emma liked Scarlett, she was a little quiet and a loner but she reminded her a little bit of herself as a teenager, a screwed up kid trying to survive the best she could. Emma knew she didn't have any friends and she knew that the girl had built her whole life around her father, she lived in terror Emma also suspected of her biological one. With one to many scumbag, foster fathers behind her Emma could sympathise.

But the way Hook had looked when he had gazed at both of those tattoos…

Ugh this was giving her a headache.

Emma knew also that she was being rather cruel, giving him hope and then taking it away from him. Who knows she could be wrong about him, she wanted to be wrong about him she realised. But if there was one thing Emma Swan knew it was how to put yourself first and survive. She suspected privately so did Captain Hook, she had to put herself first, she had to put Henry first and if she was right about Scarlett Gold with the smoking gun she had just given Hook she suspected he wouldn't become giant food just yet.

But still, she had to think of Henry, she had to think of Regina and Cora and whoever else was out there. She had to put her child first. She would ask Gold, demand answers and then if she got the answer she expected she would figure out where to go from there but right now she looked out over the rough landscape of what would have been her home and ignored the feeling prickling at the back of her neck.

Because Emma Swan knew deep down what was coming next. And if the two stories aligned with each other then, Scarlett Gold's world was going to get blown apart for the second time in her lifetime.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Killian struggles to find a way into Storybrooke, Emma attempts to get home to Henry and wonders if she should confront Gold over the information she has, meanwhile in Storybrooke Giselle's life attempts to get back to normal as she, David, Rumple and Regina attempt to stop Cora from coming through the portal.**

 **And let me know what you think, I will update as soon as I am able. **


	12. Intention And Implosion

**Hi, so here is another chapter, the next one I can reveal will the first part of a confrontation that we have been building towards.**

 **I think as well this story will end at Season 5, I'll watch the last episodes of Season 6 but I have plans to end this story at Season 5, however if there is a cliff hanger or a happy ending at Season 6 then we'll see.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 12-Intention And Implosion

Killian struggles to find a way into Storybrooke, Emma attempts to get home to Henry and wonders if she should confront Gold over the information she has, meanwhile in Storybrooke Giselle's life attempts to get back to normal as she, David, Rumple and Regina attempt to stop Cora from coming through the portal.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were."_** **(Marcel Proust) **

Storybrooke

How the hell she had ended up helping Giselle didn't know. She didn't even know how her father had ended up helping considering he didn't do anything without some particular endgame in mind. All Giselle knew was that he came home one day after what seemed like a sickening date with Belle (she had moved out thank the Lord) to announce that helping David Nolan find his wife and daughter was now their most pressing concern and more to the point that Regina would be helping them.

The next day however the point became perfectly clear. Henry greeted them when he entered the shop door with a perfectly cheery hello, Regina nodded at them coolly. Giselle noticed that she kept shooting her looks and thought it best to keep her mouth shut, gloating over her existence with the Charming's was easy, doing it with the Evil Queen was more than likely to get her killed and Giselle Jones was many things but a survivor was the main one.

That was what brought her to this afternoon where she was supposed to be helping by keeping Henry under control. From what she could gather David had decided to put himself under a sleeping curse in order to communicate with his wife while she was asleep. Henry had been doing admirably well for a while communicating with a woman called Aurora once or twice who sounded vaguely familiar but the room in which they talked was lit with flames and after a rather nasty looking burn Regina and David had universally agreed that Henry was not to go back again under any circumstances.

"There trying to stop someone powerful from coming back" Henry stage whispered as Giselle poured some tea into a mug for him. Henry was more of a cocoa person but Giselle didn't really like chocolatey based drinks and therefore she poured Henry his tea and told him with a look not to say anything about it.

"Who?" Giselle asked in spite of herself. She had been trying to get back to normal, school was starting up again in a couple of days and Giselle wasn't in the mood to be playing guessing games with Henry, his optimism, hope and just sheer belief made her feel rather nauseated. She had not had the luxury of growing up like that.

"Cora" Henry said shortly. "She's my Mom's mother, my other grandmother" he amended. Giselle thought hard. She had never heard of Regina's mother in that sense but the name Cora did seem familiar somehow. There was always so many names that seemed to bring up bad memoires that it was hard to keep up with sometimes what was normal and what was not.

Regina came back out through the shop door again, she seemed a little tighter in her shoulders than usual and she was watching Henry wearily out of the corner of her eye as if she was afraid he would bolt the second she came near him. Giselle felt a pang of sympathy for her. She had never viewed Regina as much of a threat as Mayor or as Queen. She had simply been there, she was a fixture of her life but not in the way that she had been in some others. Giselle even when living alone that year before the curse had never had to worry about the Queen pounding down on her doorstep. Even now, Giselle had empathy for the woman rather than disgust.

Perhaps this was another reason why she always felt so out of place.

Giselle decided because she had only been in a room with Henry for five seconds and she was already mentally exhausted from looking at all that youthful optimism on the kids face. She sighed and moved back into the back room, it would do some good to give Regina and Henry some time alone. If Emma was dead then David and her were all he'd have left.

David Nolan was rolling up his sleeves. He was taking the curse this time and Giselle knew from the expression on her father's face that he was trying not to look too pleased by this turn of events. Giselle didn't know why he was that interested in Snow White and Prince Charming's marital affairs but she thought wryly that this wasn't the first strange thing her father had done that hadn't made sense to her.

"Your Majesty" he said with a mock bow as Regina swept into the room with Henry who all but flew to his grandfather's side. David Nolan really did have nice forearms Giselle thought and then she promptly had to bite her lip down so she didn't give anything away.

"You did his wife" her father said pushing the needle towards Regina, he was gleeful now Giselle noticed grinning quickly as she took in Regina's look of disgust. The implications had not missed David who shot her father a look of disgust that matched Regina's but Henry apparently didn't get the innuendo.

There was a second where David just seemed to stand there and then he lay back and was just _gone_ …

It was oddly sad Giselle thought looking at him.

Regina was stood close to her son who seemed to have forgotten all about how he felt about her and was taking comfort in the only family he had left.

Giselle had been stood next to her father and she felt suddenly one of his hands curl around her, as if he understood that she was feeling out of sorts and needed comfort. He had never been the most touchy of parents and Giselle had never asked for much comfort preferring to deal with her personal shit herself but she took comfort now in the feeling of his hand wrapped around hers and the protection and strength that came with it. She had never wanted anything more than this. Her and her father against the world.

Nothing could tear them apart.

The four of them were in that room for a very long time.

And for Giselle. It wasn't Cora that was going to be the problem.

She just didn't know that yet. Her happiness and her security and the one constant she had clung onto through two lifetimes was about to be blown apart.

And nothing would ever be the same for her again.

But for now, she had this moment.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. Prison.

Emma had been in prison before. The prison she had been in had had many problems born she suspected of a failing system but privately as she sat in what once had been Gold's cell she thought for once that she might have gotten the better part of the deal.

God it was no wonder the man had gone mad in this place.

Her mother apparently seemed to know somewhat of Emma's mind set. She of course knew that Emma had been in prison, she seemed to think this was bringing up bad memories. Mary Margaret had also been a more…kinder person than Emma. Emma was more than content to let her think that, Mary Margaret she knew wouldn't have left Hook at the top of that tower.

He had been here with Cora, she had been gloating, Hook had looked…like a man on the edge of his sanity. Emma had given him some hope and then took it away from him. She knew deep down it was a miracle he hadn't killed her. But that was Emma…she jumped in without warning and here they were reaping the consequences.

If Hook got back home then…God knows what would happen, regardless of what she personally felt she knew Gold loved his daughter and she knew Scarlett loved him, she also knew Gold would fight and then it would be hell with a young girl caught in the middle of something that even Emma couldn't wrap her head around.

Perhaps it would have been best if she had kept her mouth shut.

(No it wouldn't a voice that sounded like Henry said in her head)

She remembered the look on his face when she'd said that he would have done the same as her. She had put her child first and yet here was Hook going against every stereotype and convention that was written about him and making her feel guilty. This was just another thing that she now had to feel guilty about. Fan-Bloody-Tastic.

"What do you know about Scarlett Gold?" she asked turning to Mary Margaret. Her mom turned to look at her looking rather surprised and then her face fell as she tried to think back to the time she could remember.

"I don't know..." she said finally. "Gold...Rumplestilskin" she shook her head. "He never gave any indication he had children, after we captured him we found evidence that someone was living in that palace but in truth Emma we had information on a maid that might be assisting him and I think we just assumed it was her. There was no evidence of a child and...He's not the fatherly type, I don't know any more about Scarlett other than what I know from the memories, she's just the sweet little loner that would drink coffee and read books on the weekend" she shrugged.

Emma sighed. It seemed it was becoming more and more likely that Hook was telling the truth, that Scarlett Gold was really Giselle Jones and the mother of his child and daughter were taken from him by Gold, the Lord knew Emma wouldn't put it past him. The problem was she couldn't see how Giselle or Scarlett or whatever her name was believing that Gold was anything less than God. She had believed that her biological father had killed her mother. She thought of Scarlett's face and how when she smiled she looked like a different person, how she had been so sure that she was loved and how Gold looked at her, maybe it was the curse maybe it wasn't but her superpower was telling her that not only was Hook telling the truth that Gold loved his daughter much in the way that Regina loved Henry.

So it seemed that Henry and Scarlett were much the same when it came to their mixed family. And that made both Emma's head and her heart hurt.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. Lake Nostos

There was a second where he stared at the hole that had held the portal that could have provided him access to his daughter, maybe he was getting ahead of himself but he was believing that there might be a chance he could reunite what was left of his family for the first time, revenge had now turned into something more powerful, more dangerous and more important...hope.

Cora was scooping up the water from the lake. She looked at him with something akin to her very own strange way of pity. Cora was not a woman that cared very much and Killian could count on the one hand he had left who he had told about Giselle, even half of the crew didn't know, the ones on his ship when she had been born had mostly succumbed to disease, fear and old age when he had been sailing Neverland and even more so when he came back to this land and many of them found out what had happened to their families, he had a chance to find the one thing he had ever done right in his life and perhaps make it all alright again.

And he knew he wasn't going to let Emma Swan no matter how captivating and intriguing she might be, take that away from him. If that meant an alliance with Cora with all her faults then he would do that.

Storybrooke. The curiously named little town that might have hope and horror in all one. He was going to this town, to find out if there was really any hope left for him at all.

Revenge or redemption, intention and the implosion that would come from his arrival. There was a second where he stared at the sand remembering tiny fingers that would curl around the chain on his neck.

"Are you coming?" Cora asked her voice practically dripping with fake sweetness. Killian stared at the back of her figure and then nodded "Aye" he said once and he turned away to follow the woman with her own agenda and her own plans to try and see if there was something worth living for in this curious little town called Storybrooke.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Killian arrives in Storybrooke but Cora has him help with her own agenda first. Meanwhile Emma confronts Gold and Giselle Jones finally learns the whole heartbreaking truth about her father.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	13. Errors And Omissions

**Hi, another chapter for you to enjoy, this one finally has Giselle learning the truth and not only a confrontation between her and Gold but a nice little moment between her and Emma.**

 **Let me know what you think, there is one more chapter before we get the meeting between father and daughter so be warned.**

 **This entire chapter takes place in Storybrooke but through different perspectives and different places.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **And a massive thank you to all of you that have reviewed, read, favourited or are following this story.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 13-Errors And Omissions

Killian arrives in Storybrooke but Cora has him help with her own agenda first. Meanwhile Emma confronts Gold and Giselle Jones finally learns the whole heart-breaking truth about her father.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or joy"_** **(Alan Lightman)**

Storybrooke. Gold's Shop. Emma's Perspective.

It had taken a week before Emma remembered or perhaps more to the point decided to confront Gold about Scarlett. To be fair in this week she was rather busy what with the Regina problem and Archie and returning to her own land to her father and her son. In truth it wasn't until Archie's funeral that she even saw Scarlett, her dark hair was swept back and she was stood next to a woman that from Henry's description had to be Belle. And judging from her posture she was none too happy about it.

However she wasn't at the wake and it wasn't until later that Henry provided the all-important clue that Emma had both been needing and dreading. "Belle" he had said "Is Mr Gold's girlfriend…Giselle doesn't like it that much" she had looked up and then loath to ask the question did.

"Kid what do you know about Giselle?"

Henry looked surprised. "Scarlett's real name is Giselle," he answered at once. "And Mr Gold adopted her from her murderous birth father…but even she doesn't know more than that"

Emma despite her better judgement decided to press on. "She have a last name?"

"Jones" Henry answered at once turning back to his soup. "Giselle Jones"

Emma felt her stomach roll with nausea. Therefore, Hook had been telling the truth, at least in some parts. She caught Mary-Margaret's eye and knew from the confused look that had a tinge of horror around the edges that it wouldn't be long before she made the connection between Captain Hook and Giselle Jones.

Well. That meant there was one thing left to do. Not even Emma could justify telling Giselle a half story. Not without the other side of the facts as dubious as she imagined them to be.

She had to go and speak to the man himself.

She had to go to Gold.

And may whoever was up there have mercy on her if her superpower was telling her that her instincts were right.

Emma carefully waited until Henry was back at school and when she suspected that Giselle would be out the house at her own school or at least at Granny's. From what she could gather Giselle or Scarlett or whoever she was, was not a fan of Gold's new girlfriend and therefore she had a feeling that she wouldn't be at the shop if Belle was planning on dropping by for a visit.

Gold was polishing something when she came in. judging by the barely concealed eye roll that he gave without even looking up he knew it was here when she walked in. There was a second where they stood there the counter separating them and then finally the man looked up and met her eyes.

"Something I can do for you Miss Swan?"

"I meet someone in the Enchanted Forest" Emma said without flinching.

"Good for you" Gold said turning back to his teapot or whatever it was he was trying to get minuscule dirt of.

"Captain Hook" Emma continued as if he hadn't interrupted her.

Gold's hand froze on the spout, Emma felt a thrill of victory followed by an immediate pang of horror. There was a history here and what seemed like a hell of a lot of hate but she had to be sure...she had to be sure.

If she wasn't then she was ruining a hell of a lot of lives.

Gold carefully put down the teapot and this time when he looked up at her Emma knew she had captured his full attention.

"Go on then?" he said with an air of pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

"Ask me"

"Ask you?" Emma repeated though she had a feeling she knew where this was going.

"Ask me if it's true, about Giselle"

Ah, so he knew then that she knew, he must have she realised. From the second that she come barging in here with Hook's name on her lips or maybe he had always been prepared for this conversation. Either way there was now no turning back, she had to confront him with what she knew.

"Is she Hooks daughter?"

"No" he said simply. "She's mine, biologically...yes she's Hooks daughter"

Emma blinked. It was almost the same distinction Regina had made for the whole time she was here under the curse when it had come to Henry and it thrown her.

"Did you take him from her?"

"Yes" Gold answered simply. "Dearie" he said looking at her face. "She knows all this, she knows I tool her from her father and she knows why, the safety of a child is the most important thing don't you think? Well of course you do what with you taking full custody of your own boy back before his last load of laundry at Regina's was done"

She bristled slightly. He was finding and playing at all her weak spots and he knew it as well.

"It's not how he tells the story, he tells it that he fell in love with your wife, that they had a baby, that they gave you what you wanted to find your son and that you killed her, took the baby as revenge for being hurt and then poisoned her mind against him"

Gold now had a very nasty look on his face. Good Emma thought bitterly. Let him see how it is to be rattled for once.

"Is it true?" she asked.

Gold stared at her. He had Emma realised always been somewhat honest with her even under the curse. There had always been some unspoken line and perhaps know it all made sense, he had known she was the Saviour before she was even a twinkle in the night and it irritated her somewhat. The game had always been rigged in her favour and she didn't know if that made her angry or happy. Perhaps it was now that he was going to be truthful with her. Gold watched her for a longer second and then decided Emma could see written on his face to go with the truth.

"Yes" he said finally.

It shouldn't have come as a shock but it did. Emma felt herself stepping backwards. She could not condone Hook's behaviour in this little horror show, he had ran off with another man's wife and from what she gathered in the Enchanted Forest that was a very unorthodox thing to do but she couldn't believe that Gold who she had believed had loved Scar...Giselle had done that, had took away another man's child and had now gone back to polishing his tea pot as if nothing was wrong.

"Why would you do something like that?" she asked truthfully. Gold considered her for a second.

"Because Miss Swan" he said with an air of finality. "I could"

And that Emma knew was at least for him, the end of the conversation.

"He's coming you know" she said dropping her voice with urgency. "I may have left him there but he knows you have a daughter, he's coming and he's been through hell" she didn't know why she was getting so defensive of Hook but for some reason Emma couldn't help it. "He's coming for you and he's coming for the daughter he never stopped loving"

Gold met her gaze rather impassively. "I don't doubt it" he said finally. "But he won't like what he meets, for however long he's alive to see it"

Emma stared at him again. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked finally. She had thought Regina was bad enough but she had to admit that she understood her motives somewhat when she thought of the story of Daniel that she had been told. But Gold...there seemed to be nothing and then everything all at once. True personification of evil.

Gold stared at her for a long time, it seemed lifetimes had passed in which they had tried to stare the other down. Then Emma nodded. She had gotten she reasoned the answers that she wanted. She didn't want more than that. Or for a long time she suspected that, that was what she'd be telling herself. Despite what Henry seemed to believe Emma did not think she was the Saviour of anything. She had broken the curse true but it hadn't been an acting on some heroic moment she had been simply trying to save her son.

There was a second where she wanted to yell some more at him but for once she couldn't find the right words. She finally nodded only she wasn't sure what she was nodding at and then she turned and walked away.

"Miss Swan" came the delicate voice from behind her and despite her better judgement Emma turned around and stared at him. Gold was watching her now cane in hand and the expression on his face was so dark and twisted it was almost impossible to put into words.

"I love my daughter" he said stressing on the word _my._ "My daughter, Miss Swan, I raised her, I loved her and I kept her safe when I had the world coming after me including your parents. I did more for her, have done more for her than that rum soaked toy boy of my ex-wife's will ever do and I swear if she gets one whiff of this then it won't just be this town that I'll raze to the ground, I'll make damn sure your entire family is there when I set the place ablaze"

There was a pause where they locked eyes and then Gold waved his hand at a cruel but effective dismissal. Emma fled her hands shaking, her cheeks burning and a hot sense of fear knotting in her stomach when she thought of the two men warring over this woman that had lost so much without even knowing it.

But little did Emma know that Giselle had come home early from school. Her history book had been left in the backroom and she had caught the entire conversation and was now sat on the little bed, her legs too weak to carry her and her mind racing a thousand miles per second. And little did Emma know the cloaked Pirate ship that carried Captain Hook and Cora had been docked in the port of Storybrooke and had Archie tied up in the hold.

Hindsight was a really strange thing.

* * *

Storybrooke. Gold's Shop. Giselle's Perspective.

It took a while before she could move and then when she did it was with extreme caution. There was a second where she stood there as if trying to get her bearings and then she pushed the curtain open.

If she was ever asked she would say that she leaned against the wall because she was trying to remain inconspicuous but in reality it was because Giselle didn't think her legs could keep their strength.

"What" she said her voice growing in momentum. "Did you do?"

Her father turned around to stare at her then and it was with an expression that was eerily calm for the conversation that they were going to have. He stared for a second and then he waved his hand at the door, it locked and the sign was turned instantly.

"Your mother, Milah" he said quietly as if he was starting a story that he had long ago forgotten. "Ran off with your father when your brother was just a little boy himself, she left him and me that much is true, he took from your brother, told everyone he'd kidnapped her and then when your brother disappeared I thought...he'd know." He finished lamely.

"How?" Giselle asked her head swimming with all these new facts. Her father laughed. "He had ways of travelling between realms. And the Gods knew he never tried to hide it. More to the point I went on board that ship to get what I wanted. And he double crossed me...so to speak" he shook his head "I won't get into the technicalities of why sweetheart, he'll have a different story no doubt one that will paint me as the villain, I can assure you however that Captain Hook is no saint, he's done his fair share of dark antics. But I took you from him yes that is true, and I killed Milah and I took his hand" he added as an afterthought. "But he got what he wanted in the end" he said this with bitterness coating his tongue. "He got the chance to double cross me for the second time and live so..."

Giselle blinked. "You killed my mother, took me from my father and then lied to me about the circumstances for my entire life and that's the best excuse you can come up with?" her tone was incredulous and she knew she was shouting by the end of it. She knew how it must look and she didn't care.

Her father looked at her his expression softening. It was that look he gave her when she'd been a child. The look that had always told Giselle when she was a child that she was loved, at least by someone. Now she wasn't so sure and it frightened the hell out of her. More than anything she had ever lived through and that...that was quite a lot.

"I love you" he said finally. "Remember what I said the day the curse broke? I told you that nothing would change that and nothing would, I have done bad things yes, acted out of hurt yes and I will never get the blood of my hands so there's no point in trying. But I love you and your brother and Gods knows he does not. I never made it difficult for him to come and find you and he chose for fifteen years not to bother. Father or not, what I did or not, Captain Hook choose to leave you in my care for when all he knew I could have killed you, regardless of what Miss Swan seems to think the best place where you could have grown up was anywhere away from him, from what he did for a living and the dangers that came with it"

Giselle processes that information. "You don't get it" she said finally. "He never promised me anything, he never did anything with me, he never was anything to me" that last part wasn't strictly true but that was another headache for another time. "You did, you were"

She took a step back. "I need some air" she muttered and before her father could say another word she was out the back door and into the chilly wind that came from the sea, her hair blowing about her face thankfully covering it from view.

In truth she needed more than fucking air.

* * *

Storybrooke.

Killian had spent the majority of the day fiddling with his spy glass. It was magically enchanted to ensure that he would always find what he was looking for if he was in the same realm as it and he didn't think Storybrooke was much of a difference. But he had got bored and decided to go for a walk. He wanted to find where the Crocodile lived and it seemed Cora had apparently got tired of their alliance.

It seemed that this town was inhabited with more 'modern' people than he gave them credit. He had thought Swan was dressed strangely enough but the skirt lengths you saw on some woman! If Giselle was here he hoped she wasn't looking like a prostitute that was trying to outdo all the competition.

He knew enough to know what name he was going by in this world and sure enough he saw the Gold Logo embroiled across the shop. There was a pause where he stared at the door, in all his wildest dreams and nightmares he had never considered what he would do next. The bottom line was he didn't have the dagger. And Giselle...she was more important than revenge. He had decided on that a long time ago.

He saw the back door open and something with long legs come out but he couldn't tell who it was.

He ducked back down the alley as quietly as he had come. He needed to be smart about this. He needed to have a plan. He had been caught unaware once before and that had lost him nearly everything.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Blanchard Apartment.

Emma had just sat down to a rather large bowl of beef stew when the doorbell rang. She still couldn't take her mind of what had happened at Gold's and more to the point she knew it was beginning to become obvious that there was something wrong with her.

David got up to get it leaving Emma to trace figure of eights in her stew with her spoon.

"Giselle?" he asked surprise colouring his tone and Emma whipped around her hair flying to see Giselle standing in the doorway complete with what looked like an overnight bag. "Sorry" she said her voice so small that Emma felt her heart almost stop. "I need a place to spend the night and I don't know where to go" she gave a half little shrug and Emma suddenly knew that Giselle knew. She stood up ignoring David's look of concern and moved to hug the girl.

She felt Giselle stiffen with shock and then she relaxed and Emma realised that although it was cold out that was not the reason the girl was shaking. Giselle was so like her in so many ways it was frightening and Emma realised with a stab of horror that she also had no real memory of being hugged like this, as if by a mother. She remembered the first time that Mary Margaret had hugged her and how she had wanted to cry despite feeling uncomfortable.

"Don't worry about it" she whispered into Giselle's dark hair. "You can stay as long as you like"

* * *

 **Next Chapter-As Giselle attempts to deal with the latest revelation and decides denial is the best option a spanner in the works stops that and forces her to make a decision that will forever change her life.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	14. Aftershocks

**Hi so here is another chapter, this one takes place in Storybrooke and is entirely from Giselle's perspective.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 14-Aftershocks

As Giselle attempts to deal with the latest revelation and decides denial is the best option a spanner in the works stops that and forces her to make a decision that will forever change her life.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Hope is the worst of evils, for it for it prolongs the torments of man"_** **(** **Friedrich Nietzsche)**

Storybrooke.

When Giselle woke up the next morning it took her a second to realise why she was on the couch in a house that definitely wasn't the one that she remembered. The sun was shining and her head felt like it was about to explode but she couldn't understand why she was in what looked like Emma's apartment in an old pair of pyjama pants and a top that looked like something that Mary Margaret Blanchard had worn.

And then it all came crashing back...

The lies, Hook being her father, the fact that he hadn't killed her mother after all, the fact that... _that he had never come looking for her._

She didn't understand why she seemed to always come back to that fact but she did. She remembered what her father had said. _"I never made it difficult for him to find you"_ or something like that, the Lord knows that Giselle had forgotten most of the conversation, other than the important bits.

She sat up wining as something in her back protested loudly. She did remember walking to Emma's apartment and then finally (after a beer that Emma had produced much to her mother's disapproval) telling the entire Charming clan and Henry what had transpired between her father and her the second Emma had left the shop finishing the entire sad story with the fact that she didn't know if she could go home for round two of the conversations at least (she thought privately) not with Belle there looking all concerned and fliting between her father's side and Giselle's .

Snow White had looked shocked and then had started to cook something saying that of course Giselle wasn't go back home tonight and that she could spend the night on the couch and any nights that she wanted and David Nolan, who had looked a combination between furious and shocked had offered to go and bring her some of her stuff.

Giselle had shook her head at that. A. She didn't want David Nolan going around her house if her father was in a mood and the magic was uncontrolled and B. She didn't want him to know where she was in case he came looking for her.

Therefore she had sat next to Emma at the dinner table, forced down a few mouthfuls of pasta and then collapsed on the couch exhausted while Henry was sat on the floor reading the book again.

"I guess that this explains, why you're not in the book" he said finally not looking up from its pages. "And I guess that explains why Captain Hook's not in it either" he shook his head. "What a waste of a good story" he said not looking up. Giselle stared at him. "Henry" Emma said sharply shooting her an apologetic look. "Let's leave Giselle alone"

Henry moved to go upstairs and Giselle felt the sofa bend a little as someone sat down on the edge. She closed her eyes. She didn't want to deal with Emma right now. She was grateful truly but that didn't mean she wanted to deal with the pity she was sure the blonde woman must be feeling for her. She didn't think she could stand it. Instead the scent of hot chocolate assaulted her nose. She opened her eyes to see David Nolan watching her with a small smile. In his hand was a mug of hot chocolate with cinnamon sprinkled over the top.

"Henry mentioned that you didn't like whipped cream" was all he said, Giselle stared at him for a split second and then took the mug to warm in her freezing hands.

"I don't know what to do" she said finally she could feel tears prick her eyes but she was determined not to let them fall. Perhaps David knew that because he slung an arm around her and pulled her close to his side. Giselle felt her eyes burn again despite David's shirt and her own hair covering her face. She couldn't remember being hugged like this, as if by a real parent. She had always assumed that her father loved her but even in both the Enchanted Forest and within the memories of her old life she could never remember having a hug like this. A hug where she felt like every single bone in her body was being warmed by it.

"This is what you're going to do" David said his voice gentle. "You're going to go to sleep and then in the morning we are going to go and get some things and you can spend the next few nights here" Giselle nodded and for once she allowed David to tuck her under the blankets as if she was a child.

There were some people she thought as she fell asleep, that were really meant to be parents.

And when she woke up here she was.

School was out of the question Giselle knew that, she already knew that Henry would have gone for his breakfast/hot chocolate with Ruby like he did everytime Emma couldn't keep her eye on him but she didn't think she was up to joining them.

"Hey" Snow White said gently as Giselle sat down at the table.

"I made you some eggs" she said gently sliding the scrambled eggs and toast across to Giselle. "I know you don't want to eat sweetie but you have to have something"

Giselle then felt her face crumple. Snow White stared at her for a second and then she moved across to the counter to wrap her arms around Giselle who shook a little in the older woman's arms. David curled one hand around her head a little.

"It's ok" Snow White said gently. "Let it all out sweetie"

Finally after what seemed like an age Giselle stopped shaking enough for Snow White to lean back and let her focus on her breakfast.

"Do you want to get some stuff from your fath...from Gold and then come back here for the rest of the day?" David asked gently. "Emma was called out early on a suspected Regina sighting and therefore won't be back until later"

Giselle nodded once. "If you don't mind me spending some time here" she said quietly. "If I go home..." she shrugged and David shook his head his hand cupping her chin forcing her to look up into those very attractive blue eyes. "You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do" he said his voice strong. "You can always have a home here"

Giselle didn't think that true but didn't want to get into anything with her head still pounding from all the information that she had received from the previous night.

"I'm gonna go grab some coffee and go for a walk before..." she gave another little half shrug and then turned her attention to her eggs. She could feel Snow White and her husband shoot a worried look over the top of her head.

"Have you given any thought about what you want to do about Hook?" David asked gently. Giselle paused her fork scooping up a mouthful of eggs.

"I haven't thought about it" she said truthfully. Her mind had been so locked on the betrayal that she felt and how it tied into her father that she hadn't given a thought to her other one.

Oh shit. _Her other one._

Hook, Captain Hook. She had thought of him in the abstract she had never thought of him as anything other than the person in the background but now...now he was in Storybrooke. Cora obviously was if her father was right and he so often was. Archie turning up alive had disproved the Regina theory even if she was in hiding and Hook...he had obviously used his ship to get there. It made sense now. When she had been Scarlett Gold, the dreams about the Pirate Ship and the man on the deck.

"No" she said finally. "I don't know...what the hell am I supposed to say to him? What the hell is he supposed to say to me?"

Any forms of a relationship that might have formed...hell she had wanted to kill him once upon a long time ago and then she had backed out.

David smoothed a hand down her hair in an oddly comforting kind of way. "Giselle you take as much time as you need if he's a... _decent_...man" Giselle smirked as an undercurrent of disgust was to be heard in David's voice. "He will want to know you, he will have an explanation"

She nodded tuning back to her eggs and when she left to do what she had to do it was with something oddly horrific like hope bubbling in her stomach.

That was naturally dashed to shit and back the second she stepped into Granny's. She had planned on going to go and grab a coffee before she went back home, she knew it was almost lunchtime but she had used the shower and had slept for a little bit more. Henry she knew only had a half day due to the teachers still trying to wrap their heads around schooling so many different children from different backgrounds and abilities and therefore was coming home around lunchtime to spend the rest of the day with Emma. And so Giselle went in for a coffee and a grilled cheese and didn't think twice about it.

However she forgot all about Henry.

* * *

She knew the second that she had walked in that something was wrong. Ok so since she had been outed as the Dark One's daughter so to speak people had been ducking away from her a little. They had been doing that since she had been in Storybrooke thought, she suspected however that that was because she had been the daughter of the man that had controlled their rent with an iron fist. This today however, was just...strange.

The second she walked in the entire diner became shushed and then muted as if they were at the funeral of dear friend. Giselle sat down at the counter.

"How ya doing sister?" said a voice behind her and she turned to see Leroy...now Grumpy she supposed staring at her with sympathy. There was a pause where they stared at each other before Giselle shrugged. "Good" she said as Leroy took the chair next to her uninvited. "Really?" he said passing her the milk as without asking Granny came over with Giselle's black coffee that she hadn't ordered.

"If it was my life that had just been blown to pieces and back I wouldn't be"

Giselle stared at him horror forming an icy pit in her stomach. She had a feeling that she knew where this was going but she couldn't understand how.

"How..."

"Hook and your old man?" Leroy said guessing. "Henry told us, came in here and told us all about Captain Hook being your biological father and the kidnap and the murder of your mother and how you were hiding out at his place"

Giselle gazed at him blankly before an anger so strong it was unlike anything she'd ever known formed inside of her. She felt like her very skin was on fire. Certainly she had never felt like this before.

"I didn't want that shouted around" she forced out her hands clenching on her lap into fists. Leroy nodded soothingly his hand coming out to pat her clenched ones. Giselle was reminded of that night where they had all thought Kathryn Nolan was dead and Leroy had driven her home. There were sides to him that he didn't like shown.

"I know" he said heavily. "I don't blame you, Belle was in here a couple of hours ago..."

"Oh what the hell did she do now?" Giselle all but shouted her anger for one split second getting the best of her.

"Nothing" Leroy said thankfully not commenting on Giselle's bout of temper. "Nothing but she came in and told us that Hook was here, he has his ship on the docks cloaked in some spell. He had Archie that was how we all knew...anyhow she said your father turned up, there was a row, things were said, and he pretty much declared war"

Giselle grit her teeth.

"Leroy I don't want this story dragged around this town" she said finally. "This was my story, not Henry's so if you hear someone discussing the finer points of my life please kick them and hard"

Leroy let out a laugh that was distant memory when Giselle shut the door to the dinner leaving her coffee on the table. She was going to kill Henry, Emma and Regina be both damned.

* * *

She all but punched the door to the apartment and Emma opened it surprise flickering across her face when she saw her and probably her expression.

"Where is he?" Giselle asked pushing past her.

"Who?" Emma asked.

"Henry...Henry!" she yelled "Get your ass down here now"

"Hey..." Emma started and Giselle was well aware that she had an audience but she didn't care. She was too angry to give a shit about the Charming's right now. Henry had just appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Giselle" he asked bouncing down the stairs and looking thrilled with himself.

"Do you want to explain to me why the hell I went into Granny's this morning only to find out that you had told everyone about my private life over hot cocoa?"

Emma swore under her breath.

"It was your story" Henry said looking confused. "Everyone knows everyone around here and yet nobody seems to know you so I just...i wanted them to know you as more than Rumpelstiltskin's daughter"

Giselle forced herself to count to ten, she got to about four before she snapped.

"Henry that was not your story to tell, it was mine and I didn't want it spread across the town, I didn't want either one of my father's knowing where I was until I was ready to tell them. Everything I knew or thought I knew has just turned out to be a lie, I haven't even had the time to process it and I didn't need you pretending that this can be fixed!" she realised that she was yelling at the end of this and she turned to Emma.

"What are you going to do about this?" she said. Emma started.

"Me?" she asked and Giselle couldn't help but laugh at her look of surprise. It wasn't a good laugh either.

"Well Emma, as you delight on telling everyone, you're his mother, he's invaded my privacy, turned my life into gossip for fun and possibly put my life in danger to boot. You discipline him, a real mother would" she leaned close. "Regina would"

And with that she slammed out the door and onto the cold street before anyone could tell her that she was being unfair.

Stupid fucking heroes.

As she walked down Main Street thinking hard Giselle realised that there was one thing left to do. One thing that she realised that she would always have to do. See how, she thought bitterly, the other one lived. His ship was in the dock and this time her courage would not fail her. This time she wouldn't ride back pretending that she didn't need to know about him because she did need to know. She had always needed to know.

It was time to go and find Captain Hook.

* * *

 **And i hoped you enjoyed this little update and teaser towards the next chapter which will have what all of you have wanted for so long.**

 **Let me know how you liked it with a review.**

 **Next Chapter-Giselle and Killian finally meet and Killian gains some perspective on the damage done to his daughter and takes the first step towards his revenge (entire chapter from Killian's perspective)**

 **I will update as soon as i can. **


	15. Gizzy

**Hi so here is another chapter and this one has the long awaited reunion. If you were expecting a happy ending this chapter doesn't provide it however I have plans to spread this story out until Season 5 so don't worry.**

 **This story is going to end at Season 5 as well I think. Right now it is anyway.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **'Gizzy' is the nickname Killian had for baby Giselle just so everybody knows.**

 **This Chapter does show the depth of Gold's manipulation and Giselle's anger over what she was 'told' about Hook but don't worry. For both father and daughter it does get better in the end I promise.**

 **Happy Reading.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 15-Gizzy

Giselle and Killian finally meet and Killian gains some perspective on the damage done to his daughter and takes the first step towards his revenge (entire chapter from Killian's perspective)

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _A tragedy need not have blood and death; it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic silence that is the pleasure of the tragedy"_** **(Jean Racine)**

The Jolly Roger.

He had paid the Crocodile a visit, only to be paid one in return. He had took the crappy little rag that had once belonged to Baelfire and took it back to his ship. He was not surprised when he heard the movements of someone prowling around his ship. However he was surprised to see Belle.

He remembered her off course as the woman who had fell in love with one of the greatest demons that ever had lived. Hell that was still living despite all of Killian's hard work.

He listened to her explanation and her condemnation quietly. There was nothing to say about Milah and Baelfire, there was nothing Belle could make him feel that made him feel worse about those two individuals than he already did. Milah the woman he had loved and Bae...her son...Giselle's brother. He didn't need Belle to taunt him with the haunting mistakes of his past. He had tried to be a father...once and Bae had made it obvious how he had felt. But that was a story for another time.

It was not a story for now. When the Dark One lay over him face contorted in rage and glee about to kill him. His one thought was that he was glad Giselle wasn't here. He didn't want to put herself in danger.

 _'_ _If she puts herself out for you at all'_ his mind reminded him cruelly. He had yet to meet his daughter if she was his at all though now he was on his back bleeding and aching it was looking more and more realistic and even if he did there was no guarantee that she would ever see his daughter.

He had long ago given up on the idea of a reunion, instead forcing himself to think only of revenge. Either way... "Go ahead" he told the Dark One softly even with Belle watching him in horror. "I've made peace"

The Crocodile raised his hand and he closed his eyes thinking only of how that little finger used to curl around his.

"No" Belle shouted. "Think of Giselle, Rumple. You already know that she knows, she might have questions only he can answer, you don't even know where she is and you want to do this? You want her back home don't you? You love her"

Rumplestilskin paused his hand on his shirt. Killian however had his entire focus on Belle. Giselle was alive? She knew about him? It was more than what he had ever dared hope and it was all he had ever thought about.

"Fine" he said thought it seemed that every word seemed to be causing him physical pain. "I suppose you may have a point" he leaned close then to Killian who tried to move backwards but he was pretty sure one of his ribs had been fractured. "Don't count on a happy reunion with my daughter" he hissed so that Belle couldn't hear it. "I made sure she saw you as the villain you truly are"

And then with a dignity Killian couldn't fathom he swept of the ship as if it was beneath him and sending an apologetic look (though he noted that she didn't bother to help him) Belle followed him the rag clutched in her hand.

And now he found, it was happening again.

* * *

There was someone on board his ship and from what he could guess from the steps and the weight it was female. It sounded very much like how Belle had sounded when he had heard her clambering about though he noted with a smile that made his ribs ache, whoever it was, was apparently a bit more graceful. Hauling himself to his feet with what felt like inhuman strength that he didn't know he could possess. He was aching and bleeding and too annoyed to care but there was an intruder on his ship and he forced himself to his feet. He was the Captain. It was his responsibility.

But when he did get to the open deck it was the last person he expected to see. And it made both his heart and stomach drop.

It was a girl. She was about fifteen, sixteen wearing a uniform he recognised as the nearest schools. She was without a coat and she was shivering slightly though Killian noticed her hands were clenched into fists at her side. He gazed at her a second more before his mind made the connection. She had long, choppy, messy hair that was dark as well as dark eyes, a slightly pointed chin and high cheekbones. She was wearing an expression of deep mistrust.

It took a second before he realised who this must be. Because he knew that hair, he knew those eyes, his instinct was telling him that he knew exactly who this girl was.

This was his daughter.

This was his Giselle.

"Giselle?" he asked half taking a step forward not daring to believe it. The girl, his _daughter_ stared at him for a second more before she nodded jerking her head once.

It was enough to nearly bring him to his knees.

She was _alive_. She was _here_.

He let out a broken laugh and took a step forward his hands out stretched. He just managed to curl one of his fingers around the soft dark strands of her hair before she jerked backwards and with one quick movement slapped him hard across the face.

Yes, he thought grinning, this was definitely Milah's daughter.

"Darling" he said grinning when he turned around. "Was that really necessary"

Giselle laughed once harsh and broken but still it was music to his ears that had long forgotten how to listen to it. She looked around the ship once and then turned her attention back to him.

"It's true then?" she asked once. "Your my father?" even though it was a question Killian could almost sense that she wasn't looking for an answer. She had the answers already. Her voice was light and musical almost. She had the dialect of someone that had grown up in the Enchanted Forest, the same light timber and she had the same stance of a lady, posture correct and her head held high.

"Yes" he said finally. "And I've spent the better part of eternity looking for you"

She raised an eyebrow. Evidently she wasn't impressed by that.

"I wasn't hard to find" she said her voice cool and Killian got the impression that she was very angry with him. He could understand. He remembered what the Dark One said about Giselle never looking at him like the hero. He swallowed nervously and took a step forwards. Giselle instantly took a step backwards and his heart throbbed once and painfully.

"I didn't know that" he said finally. It was a horrible excuse but it was the only one he had. "I went looking for the dagger" he saw her eyes widen...she knew about that evidently.

"I went looking for a way to kill him, I thought he'd killed you"

"And what would you have done if you'd have succeeded" she asked quietly. "Killed me?"

He gapped at her. What the hell had that demon told his baby girl to make her feel like he would ever do that? Didn't she know that he would rather stab himself repeatedly in his heart with his hook rather than put her in danger even for a second?

"Gizzy" he said softly. He saw her eyes snap back up to his at the long forgotten nickname that he had once used when she was a baby and could fit into his arms and then would spend time together while Milah was sleeping. But he didn't care, all he cared about was his daughter that was standing in front of him looking so beautiful and yet so angry and broken.

"I would never have hurt you" he said finally. "I loved you, I love you with all that I have. He took you from me, he took you right out of your bed, his hands were still covered in the dust from your mother's heart and he rocked you like it was all a big game"

He could see he was making her uncomfortable. Could see that she was perturbed by the way his voice was cracking and the way his hand was shaking thinking about that day where he had lost everything.

"I grew up..." she shook her head looking away her dark curls spilling across her shoulders cutting her off. Killian shook his head, he was desperate for any information that he could get about the life that she had lived under the Crocodile's rule.

"I want to know everything" he assured. He took another step forwards and was thankful when he realised that she hadn't took a step backwards.

"No" she said finally "You don't" her tone had become very hard and Killian had a suspicion that his battered heart wouldn't take what she was going to say next.

"I had a good life" she said finally. "I had a father...it wasn't you" she said her voice taking a cold tone and she crossed her arms as if she needed help to close him off, the walls that she had built for years about to come crashing down. The fact that she needed walls to protect herself from him was heartbreaking he found. The Dark One had really done a number on her, he hadn't been lying when he had looked triumphant this morning.

"I know" he said swallowing back the bile rising in his throat, because this was true. "I know that you...I know" he said finally. It was hopeless.

Giselle turned then to look at him with those eyes that seemed to penetrate him inside and out. He had often had both dreams and nightmares, to many in each quantity to count about those eyes and what they would say. There were dreams where they were reunited and then there were the nightmares...they were a subject for a different time.

"I don't know what you want from me" she said finally. "You got my mother killed, you tore apart my brother's family, you...you were the...you used to..." she shook her head again closing of that thought. Killian didn't mind the pain, it reminded him that he was still alive, that this was happening.

"Gizzy I'm your father please talk to me" he begged.

She shook her head her face contorting into a mask of rage. "You're not" she yelled shaking her head. "You're not, I had a father, a good father, and...And despite everything he did, and I know it wasn't fair, I know I was lied to but..." she raised herself to her full height then and pulled herself together with a remarkable speed.

"I won't stop loving him"

She said it with a look on her face. As if she was surprised by that dedication. He realised that she hadn't known. When she'd found out the truth, she hadn't known whether or not she could still love the Dark One, if she could still call him father.

Well apparently she could.

That didn't mean it hurt any less.

"Darling please" he said taking another step forwards. "Please I can make it up to you, all of it" he was babbling now, anything to get that look of wonder of Giselle's face, anything to get her to look at him like he was worthy of being her father. Anything...

 _Please._ He thought. _Please don't let me lose my daughter. Not when I just got her back._

"I don't need you" she said shaking her head. "I never needed you, I don't want you" she turned to look at him, "I'm fine, I don't want you" she repeated and then she turned and walked out of his grasp, off his ship leaving his eyes burning, his heart in tatters and his need for revenge becoming more and more dangerous.

It was time for the Crocodile to lose his heart. Just as he had lost his.

* * *

 **I will update as soon as I can**

 **And let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-Killian gets his revenge by striking the Dark One's heart. An outsider enters Storybrooke. Gold begins to act even more erratic and Giselle learns that despite what she said her feelings over her father have surprised her. **


	16. Broken Peace

**Hi, so here is another chapter, again this one is set in Storybrooke but it switches perspectives between Giselle, Emma and Killian.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **And I will update as soon as I can.**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will try and post the next one soon.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 16-Broken Peace

Killian gets his revenge by striking the Dark One's heart. An outsider enters Storybrooke. Gold begins to act even more erratic and Giselle learns that despite what she said her feelings over her father have surprised her.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _No, one is ever a victim, although your conquerors would have you believe in your own victimhood. How else would they conquer you?"_** **(Barbara Marciniak)**

Storybrooke. Emma's Perspective. 

In all honestly Emma wasn't surprised when she got the phone call that something had happened around the town line and it coincidently involved Hook, Gold and Belle. The only thing she would admit to being slightly surprised at was that Giselle was not involved.

She hadn't heard a damn thing from the girl since she had left that day after screaming at Henry not that Emma couldn't blame her. Giselle had it tough enough in her book without having her privacy stabbed by a curious ten year old who did see the problem in kidnap and murder and only saw his storybook.

Emma had took that off him along with his phone and game console and had told herself that she wouldn't let Henry know who was who for a month before she let him loose. She had to admit she couldn't help but feel sorry for Giselle despite the fact that the way the girl had compared her to Regina had hurt.

And that was strange in itself. Emma was generally able to brush shit like this off, but when it was Giselle, her face alive with hurt and some sort of defiance that Emma remembered feeling from her own days in the system she couldn't help but feel like she'd just been kicked in the face.

And that had led her to start drinking in the middle of the afternoon. A fact that she hid from both her parents because damn it she was a grown woman and grown women did not have to explain themselves to parents that had only popped up a month ago.

Not that she had told them that it was more the thought that counted.

Mary Margaret and David had come with her although technically David was now her Deputy, but as he pulled up and saw the scene she decided that that was another headache for another day.

The road leading out of Storybrooke was like a bombsight. The rain was falling thick and heavy and in the centre of it all was Belle hysterical and Gold looking...well...not good was one of the better words she could use. Next to them a little way off was a smoking car.

Oh Shit indeed.

It didn't take too long to find Hook.

In reality she wasn't really surprised either.

He had clearly been hit by the nearest car and it had sent him flying. It was clear that he had broken some ribs looking at the way his body was flung about like it was a broken rag doll but he was alive Emma realised grimly because when she poked him he made a groan and said a string of curses that made the old Emma, the teenage Emma want to grin and respond in kind.

"Wow was that stupid" she said finally as the rain poured down around them. Hook cracked open one of his eyes and regarded her with a look that was so woebegone that even Emma felt sorry for him. To cover up her momentary weakness Emma told him that he had at least three broken ribs.

"Must be why it hurts when I laugh" was the irritable reply and Emma rolled her eyes. Wow she was not paid enough to deal with this shit.

She stood up ready to tell the ambulance that Hook was ready to move but the look on her Mother's face told her in no uncertain terms that something else and something dangerous was up. And that was how Emma knew about the stranger that had just entered Storybrooke.

* * *

The ride to the hospital was quick but eventful. After finally managing to get a lethargic Whale off his ass and had separated Hook from a murderous Gold, Emma left the topic of the stranger to her parents and Leroy before she went to see Hook.

In hindsight that was a very bad idea.

Hook was handcuffed to the bed per Emma's asking for it and his hook was safely in her possession, she intended to keep it down at the station that way and for some time to boot. He was changed into a hospital gown and a dressing gown on top of that to combat the combination of rain, cold and adrenaline that came, Emma supposed with shooting your enemies girlfriend over the town line.

He looked up when he saw her and tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace and Emma supposed she'd let the standards drop due to the fact that Hook was struggling with...well...a multitude of problems.

"So" she said sitting down on the bed. "You've been busy"

Hook had the decency to laugh even if it was panful. Emma folded her hands on her lap and waited.

"So you went for Gold's girl" she said shaking her head. "Smart"

Hook was watching her with a small smirk playing at his face. That was nothing compared to the fact that his eyes were so sad and broken. Oh God, Emma was getting sad again. There was a second where they stared at each other. "I went after his heart" he said and Emma resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Belle just happens to be where he keeps it"

There was a second where they stared at each other for a long time. It was Hook that spoke first and when he did it was with a tone filled with such melancholy that it nearly made Emma un-cuff him. The emphasis on 'Nearly'.

"I met her" he said finally. "Giselle" he said the name with such a combination of longing and pain that it was hard to stay mad at him.

"She hates me" he said finally.

"No she doesn't" Emma said without thinking. Dark eyes immediately found hers and she shook her head again. "I know Giselle" she said finally and when she next spoke it was with a certainty she never really felt.

"I knew her when she was Scarlett Gold and she was that strangle little loner in the corner reading books, she doesn't hate anyone, maybe she dislikes the woman that you shot but she doesn't hate you, I can promise you that. I think she just...i think she's torn between Gold and you...and...it doesn't help that my son may have told the whole town her personal business." She said feeling a little abashed by what Henry had done.

She considered telling him about her superpower but she didn't think he would get it and she wasn't really up for explaining it, at least not today.

Hook stared at her for a long time with a strange expression carved onto the admittedly rather good looking features that adorned his face. It took Emma a second to realise what the expression was. It was hunger. He was hungry for every detail he could get about his daughter and she saw him lean back a little the tension leaving his shoulders when she told him that his daughter didn't hate him.

"She looked at me like..." he gave a half shrug... "She doesn't need me" he said finally. Emma leaned back. This entire conversation was going down a road where she didn't think she wanted to go down just yet. Not only was Giselle's privacy at stake but the entire conversation of a parent denied their child was too personal especially now. Giselle was a good friend and she was the closest thing that Emma had to a...well a younger sister she supposed and Emma didn't have the heart to explain that she knew somewhat, what the girl was feeling.

"Goodnight" was all she said.

"Wait" he shouted as she moved off the bed and Emma turned at the sound of rattling steel. He was half pushed up against the bed and Hook's eyes were wide with a sincerity that Emma had never seen before.

"Can...Can you let her know that I'm here" he said finally. "Just...Just in case that she want...Just in case" he finished lamely.

Emma stared at him for a second longer then her heart won out over her head and she nodded.

Hook shot her a look of relief mixed with some terrible declaration of defeat and then sunk back on the pillows his eyelids fluttering close.

Emma ducked out the room and down the corridor before anyone could see her. She reached for the phone and then remembered Gold. Her hand gripped the case tightly. It wasn't just one father that would need his daughter tonight, and if Giselle was the key to keeping one from murdering the other then Emma was going to take it.

* * *

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

She ran off. She had ran off rather than dealing with the fact that Captain Hook was a person. She had stared at him for a long time weighing up the facts, he was...younger than she had expected that was for sure but he was still her father that much she could see. They looked alike and the little girl who had spent her weekends in the Dark Castle staring at her looking glass trying to imagine what the monster in her nightmares looked like had not been able to handle it.

So she had ran.

Giselle had ran away. She had nearly told him but in the end she had ran away. She didn't need Hook knowing her weaknesses, she had survived this long essentially and emotionally on her own and she would survive it again.

However the problem was that she didn't have anywhere else to go. Both fathers...no her father and Hook were out of the question and Emma was now out of the question as well.

She had taken a seat at Granny's and the older woman had taken one look at her and had come around the counter and hugged her. Giselle didn't realise until the woman had tucked her into a room with a cup of hot chocolate and the promise of rent not being a problem for at least this night.

She had stripped to her underwear and then had crawled under her bed and laid there trying to make sense of what had happened. It was there that she had stayed exhaustion creeping in when her phone had bleeped signalling two missed phone calls from Emma and at least one new message.

Blinking back a combination of exhaustion and she suspected tears but she didn't care. At least...not until she got the message, the message about her father...about Belle...about Hook...Then she was out of bed and reaching for her boots and coat as soon as the shock had worn off.

She had to get to the hospital.

* * *

Storybrooke. Emma's Perspective. Part II. 

Emma had just been through another row about the stranger, a long night wondering if the drunken doctor was going to do his job and more than one cup of coffee. Gold had stormed out of Belle's room with a look like thunder and Emma was so not in the mood to deal with what was coming next.

They stared at each other for a second, Saviour and Dark One as Emma stood in the way of his revenge. She was suddenly aware of her father standing up behind her eyeing Gold with a mistrust that made even Emma's look like child's play. Then there was a sound that cut through the staring contest and Emma turned to see a wave of dark hair nearly hit the Nurses station. Her father saw it as well and he knew who it was the same way Emma did.

"Where is he?" came a female voice that was filled with a combination of panic and something that sounded a little bit like guilt in a way that Emma almost understood and Gold stiffened.

"Giselle" David called and there Giselle Jones stood. Her hair was loose and falling around her shoulders and she was still in her school uniform, she looked emotionally drained.

"Where is he?" she asked looking directly at Emma.

"Here" David answered, cutting across whatever answer Emma was going to give and pointing out Gold standing there. Giselle turned shock marring her face.

"Sweetheart" Gold said wrapping his arms around Giselle and she awkwardly retuned the hug. Emma resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she turned to her father.

"I don't think..." she whispered to her father. "That that was the 'he' she was referring to"

* * *

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective.

When he woke up it was with a woman in the room. It wasn't Emma that was obvious, it was a woman with dark hair and a profile from his dimming vision that he could almost recognise.

For a brief second he thought it was Milah.

Then the woman came into the light and then he saw who it was. It was Giselle.

For a second they stared at each other before Killian pulled himself up and forced himself to stare directly at his daughter. He must have fallen asleep he realised, but Giselle was still stood there, his plea had obvious resonated with Swan.

She had called his daughter, and his daughter had come. Perhaps to stick the knife in but she was here and he was beginning to treasure every second he could staring at that face that had haunted both his dreams and his nightmares.

Giselle moved to sit down on the edge of the bed. She was still in that strange uniform that she had been in when she had come to see him.

It was a mixture of thrill and pain at what he suspected might be coming next.

"Hello" he said finally.

"Hello" Giselle said back. She was very calm Killian realised, eerily calm. It was...well...unnerving...

"I suppose" Killian said sitting a little bit up, because yes he was that much of a machinist.

"That you're mad at me? For hurting your stepmother?"

Giselle raised one eyebrow and for a second it was silence and then she tipped her head back and laughed once, long and hard. It was the first time he realised that he had heard his daughter laugh and it was glorious. It was perfect and Killian drank it up wishing when it ended that he could hear more of it.

"Belle" Giselle said calming down, "Is not my stepmother, she was never my stepmother, in fact we don't even like each other...to be honest" she leaned closer. "I think that shooting her so that she'll forget about him was probably the best thing that you could have ever done"

Well...well...that was something...

Giselle leaned back and watched him with wide eyes as if she was trying to figure something out. Then she stood up and smoothed down her skirt.

"Are you staying in Storybrooke?" she asked finally, Killian started looking back up at her using his chained hand to push himself up from the bed. "Yes" he said finally. Giselle stared at him again. "I suppose you don't intend to stick around when they press charges?" Killian grinned.

"You know where I am" he said. "And I have more than one trick up my sleeve to stay hidden believe me"

There was a second where Giselle stared at him.

"I don't know how to do this" she said finally. "I don't even know if I want to do this, but..." she gave a half shrug and then turned to walk to the door.

"I'm glad you're not dead" was what she said without looking around. "God knows I don't know why but I am"

And with that she slid out the door shut it firmly behind her. There was a second where he sat there on the bed in a sort of stunned shock and then finally a small smile forced its way onto his face.

Well...it was a start if it was nothing else.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-As Emma heads to New York, Hook takes the moment to get revenge and not only does Emma have to contain with a face from the past she realises that she has to tell another secret. Meanwhile in Storybrooke not only does Giselle have to contend with the knowledge that not only has one father took revenge against another but that her brother is back in Storybrooke it seems that Regina has another plan up her sleeve that might but her on an even playing field against the one woman that she has always had her misgivings about (long chapter)**

 **And let me know what you think**

 **I will update as soon as I can. **


	17. Father, Brother, Sister, Lacey

**Hi so here is another chapter, this one was a monster to write and i'm still not sure weather or not it was good but i'm sleep deprived and annoyed and therefore this is it.**

 **This does cover the whole Bae/Neal/Giselle meeting however and this does cover events from Manhattan to Welcome to Storybrooke briefly. That last episode has Giselle's exhaustion and post magical adrenaline sleeping through the episode and then finding Belle so just assume that Belle/Lacey has some memories of Giselle/Gold even if she doesn't know who they are to her.**

 **Wow that was confusing. I do think there will be two more chapters of Season 2 left and then we are on to Season 3 and I can confirm that this story** ** _will end_** **in Season 5. I can end this story in a good place in Season 5 and with OUAT future still up in the air.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 17-Father, Brother, Sister, Lacey.

As Emma heads to New York, Hook takes the moment to get revenge and not only does Emma have to contain with a face from the past she realises that she has to tell another secret. Meanwhile in Storybrooke not only does Giselle have to contend with the knowledge that not only has one father took revenge against another but that her brother is back in Storybrooke it seems that Regina has another plan up her sleeve that might but her on an even playing field against the one woman that she has always had her misgivings about (long chapter)

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Delay is the deadliest form of denial"_** **(C. Northcote Parkinson)**

New York.

The events that had lead up to where Emma Swan was now were too complicated to know. There was a second where she had stared at Bae...Neal...whatever his name was, who was standing in that room and staring at Henry as the cogs slowly fell into place for all of them bar her in the room, even as Henry stormed off and Gold went to try and rebuild bridges with his son Emma was still stood there trying to figure out where the hell they go from here.

So Neal was Gold's son, which meant that he was also Giselle's brother, they were connected via a mother and that meant that Henry who had destroyed Giselle's privacy was also what? Her nephew?

God this family tree thing was confusing. She needed to have a strong drink to get through this and if she knew Neal was still the same he would only be drinking vodka and Emma had...well a rather complicated history with that spirit.

Whatever had gone down with Neal and his father and then Neal and her son she was apparently not going to be privy to and that was quiet ok as far as she was concerned, in fact as far as Emma was concerned she didn't care, she was in such a state of numbness that couldn't see past the facts that were blazing behind her eyelids.

In the end she needed to tell Neal about his sister. In fact she'd rather the truth come out from her rather than the truth that Gold had been telling everyone for nearly half a century.

"Hey" she said trying and failing she supposed to trying to sound normal but what do you say to the man that you lied to and that has lied to you for the better part of nearly twelve years.

Neal shot her a weak smile. Emma leaned against the wall. "There's something else you should know" she said finally. Neal groaned loudly. "Don't tell me he has a sister" he said staring at her and Emma almost laughed at the irony.

"No" she said quietly. "But you do"

Neal stared at her for a second and then nodded. "Yeah I know" he said quietly he caught the look on her face and shrugged. "Hook and I have a...complicated history and he told me...said she was dead though, your telling me different"

"Yeah" Emma said. "Your father decided to take her and raise her as his own"

Neal gave a small snort. "You think that would surprise me but nothing that he does, accomplishes that anymore" he leaned back, tipping his head back and then cracking his neck a little. Emma winced in sympathy. "I suppose she hates him to?"

Emma dithered debating how to explain...well...Giselle. There was a second where they stared at each other and then Emma shook her head. "I don't think so" she said cautiously. "I don't think that she...she was a big fan of him, loved him under the curse and probably in the Enchanted Forest, but now she knows the truth...I couldn't say for sure"

There was a second where they stared at each other and then Neal gave a little smile that Emma for once found herself returning.

"So I guess she doesn't like me then" he said finally "Or she won't as soon as she meets me and Hook..." he shook his head. "Too much water under that bridge to ever go back"

Emma stared at him for a second and then nodded. "Ok" she said even though she didn't think it was ok.

But she didn't anticipate Captain Hook's unending need for revenge, or perhaps she didn't think of it, even if she did think of it she would have never had guessed that Captain Hook would be able to travel to New York.

Still, if anything that had happened between her and Regina should have told her it was never to mess with a parent whose heart had been broken by their child.

* * *

Storybrooke

Giselle had ended up spending the night at Granny's again and only when she woke up and went down for breakfast did she run into David who told her that her father had left for New York in order to find her brother.

Giselle had taken some toast and then bolted out the back door. With Belle in the hospital with her entire memory gone and Hook...well Hook...alive if nothing else she had gone straight back to the house. She grabbed her boots, laptop, essentials and clothes to last her a couple of weeks before stuffing all of them in a duffel bag.

The numbness she realised was beginning to wear off. Hook...well...was he so terrible? Perhaps he wasn't the bad guy that had been the plague of her nightmares as a child but perhaps he was...well...someone she could get to know.

She didn't want to say father yet not while this entire thing was so confusing but perhaps she did want to get to know Hook. Perhaps there was a relationship that was salvageable out of all of this hurt and pain and confusion.

The problem was that the only person that might have an inkling on what she was feeling was Emma Swan and Giselle supposed that claiming Regina was a better mother than her had kinda burned down that bridge.

But still...if her brother was still alive...if he was coming back, maybe he would know?

Still, he also hadn't been a prominent figure of Giselle's life. In fact quite the opposite. More to the point she wasn't sure if she was really ready for another family member to pop up and ruin it all at the minute.

Fortunately school was on their half semester break that was basically an excuse for the school staff to still figure out where everything and everyone was and what was going to happen for next year. With the library now lacking its leader Giselle spent most of her time there sometimes letting in the younger students, all in all running the place for two days life seemed as normal as if could have got. If you forgot the giant stomping around Storybrooke though thankfully that had been resolved before it could do any real damage.

The only thing was that she hadn't seen anything of Hook since the hospital. And she wasn't sure if that upset her or made her feel glad.

But one of the things she had done over the course of the forty eight hours she was alone was turn her phone off.

And that was how she didn't find out that Hook had gone rouge and had stuck poison (and his hook) into her father's chest until the ship was already in port and the man was being led of bleeding and stumbling. And that was how Giselle met Baelfire.

It was Mary Margaret or Snow White or whatever the hell she was being called that had woken Giselle up in the early morning when the sky was still a dark blue to tell her what was happening. That Hook had stabbed her father, that he was dying or so they thought of some kind of evil poison and that they had to meet Emma, Henry and her long lost brother at the docks where they were arriving.

Giselle got dressed finding her jeans and boots and her old washed grey jumper. She didn't even bother to run a brush through her hair, just tied it back a little in a loose ponytail and followed Snow White out the door.

Despite all her obvious issues with her father, it was only until Giselle saw the mast at the top of the ship that she realised that nothing had changed the bone deep terror that was sinking into her bones when she thought about a world without her father. It didn't even matter what had transpired all that mattered was the fact that he was dying and Giselle's other father the one three or four hours ago she was considering letting into her life was responsible.

Her father half slid of the ship there was no other way to describe it but David was there along with Emma and they were the ones pulling him away before Giselle could even see him. Henry rushed past her as Snow White pulled him close and that just left...well that just left her brother.

It was like going to the gallows she thought bitterly as she turned to see the last member of her family standing their eyeing her.

Her brother...was...well...there...

Giselle eyed with him interest and what she felt like suspicion. He was tall, Giselle was tall too but she this man was taller than her and had curly hair a shade lighter than Giselle's. Their eyes were roughly the same colour and while his skin was a shade or two tanned more than hers she was loath to admit that she could very easily see the resemblance.

But still this irked her somewhat. She had always been in Bae's shadow and she knew little about him anyway. And now he was standing here and Giselle wasn't sure if she wanted to hug him or hit him. With Hook it had been easier. Her...no their mother had ran off with her father and had ruined his family, had probably set his father on a path to becoming the man or monster depending on your view that he was today and she knew that at least a part of him had to blame or resent her or certainly resent Hook for that.

And yet here they were.

Two people bonded by a combination of blood and the parentage on each side regardless of who they were, three of the most selfish people she thought that were or had been alive.

"Hi" he said finally and Giselle smiled shyly. Yeah, this was a lot different than how she had felt going to see Hook.

"Hi" she said back.

"I'm Ba...Neal..." he said finally holding out his hand, "I guess you must be Giselle? Or do you prefer Scarlett?"

Giselle didn't ask how he knew because he knew that the man had just been on a ship with Henry.

"Giselle" she said finally.

"Ok...Look..." he dithered a little. "I guess we have a lot to talk about and a lot of ground to cover but right now...i think we have to go and see if our father's dying"

Giselle nodded and followed.

"Where's..." she gestured a little back at the ship and Neal turned around to look. "Oh Hook" he said carelessly. "Back in New York, we left him in a supply closet...sorry" he said quickly.

"Don't" was all Giselle said.

They rushed back into the shop where Giselle stared. There was a sensation as if the world was falling underneath her and she stared for a second longer before she turned her eyes away under the guise of some desperate sort of sick self-preservation.

He looked _dead._

Well of course he looked dead she thought to herself irritably. He was _dying_. The Dark One, the living proof of immortality was dying and it seemed none of the bloody fucking heroes had any clue what they were doing and more to the point her brother didn't seem to care what happened either way.

And suddenly a fury such as she had never known exploded inside of her. Giselle felt it rise as if she was on the helm of that damn ship and then crash back into her so powerful she felt she couldn't speak. Hook had done this, Hook had taken away the one bit of security that she had ever known and had done so without thinking of her, just of his revenge.

Maybe her father was right, maybe revenge was all Hook had ever cared about, maybe he would have killed her after all...he had told her he hadn't and she had believed him but it was clear that he was a better liar than she had ever given him credit for.

Slowly she walked out the back room into the actual shop. Emma and Neal were talking quietly and her father was asking Snow White for something and then they were talking and she couldn't breathe due to anger or panic she wasn't sure but her legs went out and she _couldn't breathe._

Something she dimly registered or someone caught her around the middle and she was pulled into the strong muscles of someone's chest.

"Breathe kiddo come on, I just met you I don't plan on having you passing out on me"

Neal...she realised it was Neal who was coaxing her to breath. Giselle followed his lead dumbly and then allowed him to pull her into a sort of hug where they were both sat on the ground. She realised that if Hook had stabbed her father and he died then she would have nobody.

"Don't be stupid kiddo, you've got me, and I'll look after you"

Had she said that out loud?

"Yeah and you're having a panic attack kiddo, don't really blame you but I think one family member dying is one enough today come on breathe..."

Slowly she began to breathe again and when she looked up she saw Neal on the floor with her. She had gripped his arm as she had gone down and he was looking at her not with pity but with empathy. He managed a small smile and Giselle could only imagine how wild she looked. Emma was keeping a safe distance but Giselle even after she stood up found herself still clinging to her brother, her big brother, the person that was supposed to protect her and had never been there.

But he was here now she supposed and that was good enough.

"Neal" David said from the back. "Gold...he...wants a phone, for Belle and I think he wants to talk to the both of you privately"

Neal muttered something under his breath and then patted Giselle on the arm. "You gonna be alright kiddo?"

"Yeah" Giselle half gasped. "Yeah I think so"

She didn't but she wasn't going to take up any more of his time. Not when their father was in the next room slowly bleeding to death and Cora and Regina on the warpath.

Emma was still watching her from where she was on the floor the chalk still clutched in her hand.

"Sorry" Giselle said widely though she had no clue what she was apologising for. Emma smiled at her gently.

"Henry he shouldn't have said what he said" she said quickly.

"I shouldn't have compared you to Regina" Giselle said back.

"Neal is Henry's father" Emma said quickly with an air of getting the worst over with. Giselle shot a look through her own numb amusement to David who was wearing an expression that was half irritation and half disgust.

Giselle stared at her then before she realised what that meant. She was Henry's aunt.

"Brilliant" was all she could force out before she managed to get to her feet and push past David into the backroom.

Neal and her father seemed to be in some sort of strange embrace but Giselle noticed with a small leap of twisted amusement that as soon as she walked in her brother had jumped two feet backwards as if he was being burned.

"I'll err...leave you two alone" he said moving backwards to the other room.

And then it was just the two of them.

"I didn't tell Hook to kill you" Giselle said quickly. She wasn't sure why that was important to her it just was. It was important that he knew it.

"I know" her father said softly. "And don't go thinking it was your fault. The man would have found a way eventually. Coward" he said scathingly.

"I'm living at Granny's at the minute" she said finally. "I wanted to come home but..."

"You didn't know what I would do"

She shrugged. Her father sighed.

"I know I've not been brilliant" he said as Giselle took the seat in front of him. "I know that...there are a lot of things I should have done better but you were a weakness...a good one and even the Charming's would have used you to get to me never mind what the rest of them would have...Hook...stole my wife from me and perhaps it wasn't the best marriage but it was my wife and he..." he gave a long sigh.

"I don't expect you to understand why I took you or even forgive. I don't understand it to be honest...all I know is that I never regretted it. You were my daughter and I have loved you and you have made me very proud. Whatever that means to you, and if I survive this which I highly doubt then I want to make up the trust that we've lost. I want to change"

Giselle snorted. "I'm not Belle" she said flatly. "I never wanted you to change, I don't think you should, you can try but you won't. I never lived in fairyland like she did thinking there was reformation in everyone. You love power too much and it's one of things that made you such a good father, I always felt safe. I'm not sure if I would have ever felt that with him. I certainly don't think it now"

"You never did like Belle did you?"

"No" Giselle said flatly. "But what did you expect? Rosanna was dead and you brought home someone else while I was still grieving, someone who didn't understand or even try to, I was first, she wanted to be, she was at the end and then she was gone. I won't deny that I was glad. I won't deny I'm glad now. If you'd have waited a year, or perhaps talked to me or her then maybe it would have been different but you didn't so here we are"

"Well don't hold back on a dying man will you?"

Giselle laughed her eyes suddenly becoming wet.

"Neal has agreed to stay in Storybrooke and look after you" he said his voice suddenly gentle. "I think he's looking forward to it. I always wanted to reunite you and now here we are, I always wanted to see it, it seems only fitting that I'm dying when I do"

Giselle furiously wiped her face.

"I love you Giselle" he said finally. "I was so glad when you were Scarlett Gold. I always wanted that".

Whatever Giselle was going to say next was interrupted by a bang. A woman that had to be Regina's mother came sweeping in through the door. She looked at Giselle then looked at her father, rolled her eyes once and then Giselle remembered no more.

When she woke up she was told by a rather concerned Emma what had happened. Giselle through her pounding headache got the gist of it. Cora was dead, Regina was pissed and more to the point it was Snow White that had done the deed.

Whatever was happening next Giselle didn't know or care because her father was alive and she needed time to think. She went back to Granny's along with Neal who was renting a room and then slept for what felt like a week. What she did notice was that there were no nightmares dominating her dreams this time.

But when she woke up she realised that it was night again and that she was in dire need of something strong to wash down all the shit of the past week.

She knew at least one person at the Rabbit Hole and if she threatened their liquor licence due to the fact that her father still owned the damn thing she reckoned she would get one beer and that was all she needed.

However she realised when she entered that she would need two.

"Belle?"

It was Belle and then it wasn't. It was Belle in a skimpy red shirt and shorts and flirting with everyone in sight and Giselle was very well aware that she was in her old jeans and flannel shirt over her sports bra.

This was the Belle that Giselle wouldn't have minded getting to know. The Belle without all the sanctimonies and condescending and general...bookish Belle that had annoyed her so much in the Dark Castle.

Holy shit.

Well...if this was Regina's revenge then she had to give the other woman credit. This was...incredible.

"Giselle" Belle said hugging her and nearly tripping over a chair. Wow she had, been drinking. Who knew a need for alcohol and blackmail could bring you this? "Hey Johnny" she yelled at the barman. "Bring my friend a drink and one for me as well"

Either Johnny was an idiot or he wanted to make Belle happy because he slid across two tequila's without any complaint.

"Cheers" Belle said raising her glass.

Giselle looked down at her drink and then decided to hell with it all.

"Cheers" she said clinking her own glass with the woman that only a day ago she was happy with being out of her life.

Well, if you were going to go bad then you might as well do it right.

And in any case. Giselle had long since gone past the point of caring.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Giselle finds herself doing something that she never thought she would do...bonding with Belle, or Lacey or whoever. Gold decides to join in leaving Neal worried about the road his sister is going down. In the Enchanted Forest Giselle and Belle reluctantly join forces to save a rouge and charming thief from a terrible death leading to Giselle's eyes being opened a little but the aftermath may have far reaching irritable consequences. Meanwhile Killian returns to Storybrooke under a new alliance and is shocked by the changes to his daughter. Penultimate Chapter of Season 2.**

 **And let me know what you think.**

 **And I will update as soon as I can. **


	18. The 'Dark' Family

**Hi, so here is another chapter, again this one is long and dark and difficult to write. I am getting to the darkest part of Giselle's mind set, she has been constantly lied to and manipulated and therefore I think if anyone has the right to behave badly it's her.**

 **There are some mentions of underage drinking.**

 **The 'He' referred to in this chapter is Edmund who was a supporting character in an early chapter and will be mentioned a lot more in Season 3. He is Giselle's secret and he will be making a rather pivotal appearance in a later chapter where we explore what happened during that year she was on her own.**

 **The part about Robin Hood I shortened considerably to keep it more focused on the relationship between Belle and Giselle.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **And the next chapter will be the last of Season 2.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 18-The 'Dark' Family.

Giselle finds herself doing something that she never thought she would do...bonding with Belle, or Lacey or whoever. Gold decides to join in leaving Neal worried about the road his sister is going down. In the Enchanted Forest Giselle and Belle reluctantly join forces to save a rouge and charming thief from a terrible death leading to Giselle's eyes being opened a little but the aftermath may have far reaching irritable consequences. Meanwhile Killian returns to Storybrooke under a new alliance and is shocked by the changes to his daughter. Penultimate Chapter of Season 2.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but one of respect and joy in each other's life"_** **(Richard Bach) **

The Enchanted Forest. The Dark Castle.

"This is a bad idea" Giselle said as she watched Belle help Robin Hood to his feet.

"Then why did you open the door?" Belle shot back. Giselle rolled her eyes irritably stamping her feet together in the boots that she had been wearing when she had walked through the door to catch the tail end of Belle's mad plan.

"Because...well...I don't like listening to the screaming"

Belle snorted as she helped Robin limp to the door. Giselle didn't help her but as they watched Robin limp away with a kind smile at both of them she turned to Belle.

"We might be on the same side this time but I don't like you, and when he finds out i'm not covering for you"

I" never expected you too" Belle said her smile so sweet it was like sugar.

"Good" Giselle said her own voice just as sweet.

"Glad were getting along" said Belle as she walked up the stairs.

Without looking back Giselle shouted. "We are not fucking friends"

And she hated the fact that she could hear Belle laugh as she slammed the door to her bedroom shut.

* * *

Storybrooke

Well this was...unexpected...

Giselle and Belle had always had a contentious relationship and weather Belle had ever known the reason why they were constantly at each other's throat's Giselle didn't know, if she had she hadn't let onto it.

So when Belle became Lacey and her father once again decided to give into the darkness that Lacey so desperately craved Giselle was more than surprised in herself when she decided to fuck it all and join in.

Ok so she didn't join in in all of it, thank all that was good and holy. But there was something inside of her that wanted to throw off her old skin and rebel against everything that was expected of her.

Neal expected a sister that hated their father as much as he did, Hook expected a daughter that would love him and that needed him to rescue her, Emma expected someone that needed a helping hand, and The Charming's expected her to ask for help when she thought she was being tested. Hell even Henry thought she should be more excited by the story that was her life unfolding in front of her. It didn't matter that Giselle wanted none of that. All that mattered was that she shut up and took it all with a smile because Storybrooke had more than enough drama to contend with thank you very much.

Sanctimonious pricks all of them.

Her descent into the darkness that was so empowering she couldn't breathe sometimes for want of laughing life away. She decided one morning not to go to school and it was accepted. Hell her father gave her a wad of cash, (looking at Belle... no Lacey in a highly unpleasant way) and she went shopping buying herself shorts and tight skirts and tops that showed off her cleavage.

The next day she went to Granny's in her new boots and shorts and black jumper and grinned at herself when she saw people stare. She ordered coffee and ignored the whispers when they saw her over use of eyeliner and people wondered if this was why the Dark One's daughter had been kept away. Was she slowly going the same way as both her fathers?

That night her father cracked open a bottle of the good scotch and poured three large glasses. Lacey clapped her hands and grinned and Giselle found herself tossing back her hair and laughing with her.

It was like drinking the strong mead in the Enchanted Forest. Though that reminded her of Edmund and she tried not to think of that because it was too painful to consider everything she had lost before her life had been upended.

That whole week Giselle stayed off school and ate pizza in her pyjama's and walked to Granny's and ordered coffee and scowled at whoever came up to her. She knew Neal's fiancé was coming down for the weekend to meet Henry for the first time and she also knew that she had not been invited to the meeting. His son she wanted her to meet, his sister...well...it appeared not so much.

And that made her scowl and down more of her whiskey or wine or whatever it was that she was holding least she throw it at the wall or the nearest person that looked at her funny.

She supposed however that it was only a matter of time before someone tried to 'help' her.

There were three attempts actually.

There was first and foremost Emma that took place in the morning of the fourth day that she had spent at Granny's her pyjama's tucked into her boots grabbing coffee and a grilled cheese as if she was dying if she didn't have it.

"Hey" Emma said banging down on the chair next to her without invitation and making Giselle scowl. "I was looking for you...oh..." she said taking in Giselle's appearance. "You look like you've been hitting the booze"

Giselle smirked into her coffee.

"So what" she said turning to see Emma. Emma shrugged. "I know that with curse years you're practically like...forty or whatever but in Storybrooke you're still only sixteen and I'm pretty sure that it's still illegal even in Maine"

Giselle stared at her for a second and then ducked her head back down, she was too lethargic and tried to deal with Emma Swan today. A part of her so desperately wanted to ask if Henry had forgiven her for not only lying but apparently also not measuring to her son's view (admittedly naïve) of what a hero should be. But instead she took another mouthful of coffee and then she waited patiently for the real reason Emma was sat there watching her.

"What do you want from me?" she said finally and Emma started as if she didn't expect Giselle to be blunt enough to ask her face to face. "I...did you know that your brother's fiancé is in town?"

Giselle stared at her flatly. "You know I do" she said finally. "You know I know she's here and you know that I know you've met her and that means that you know that Neal didn't ask me to come along and meet her. He wants her to meet the son he's known for the same amount that he's known me and he didn't want to explain the half-sister his mother had with a pirate. You don't have to explain it to me Emma. So why don't you tell me what the hell you really want?"

Emma blinked then her expression hardened as her resolve Giselle thought scathingly. Well she was ready for whatever Emma Swan wanted to throw at her.

"I wanted to tell you as a friend..." Giselle snorted but Emma spoke over it.

"As a friend that there have been several complaints about your behaviour...yours and...Belles or Lacey's or whatever the hell she's going by now and your father's, drinking, dancing on the table at the Rabbit Hole not to mention the fact that. I don't pretend to understand what you've been through but...I don't like the person you're becoming and I have to tell you that a lot of other people don't like it either"

Giselle took another sip of her now cold coffee and regarded Emma with a feeling of total detachment.

"And you want me to what? Change the error of my ways?"

"I know you're not happy" Emma said finally. "I don't think that you've ever been happy"

"Happiness is overrated" Giselle said irritably. Now it was Emma's turn to snort.

"You know that's not true. Even in the Enchanted Forest were you ever happy?"

Giselle paused. She was happy once that much she would admit if only to herself. Carefully she tried not to think of the one person that had made her happy. For one year she had been happy and she wasn't interested in reliving memories. The only good thing that had happened during the curse was that she had forgotten about, about that one year of freedom that she had gained. Now she was trapped between one father and another and both seemed to make her feel constrained and unable to breathe.

Drinking right now actually seemed to be the only thing that seemed to help.

My God, had she always been this lonely?

"Yes" she said finally putting down her coffee cup with an awful sense of finality. "Once..."

"And then?"

"And then he died" was all she said and with that she was up and out of the diner before she could give way to the misery that was threatening to engulf her.

* * *

The second time that day she was approached by was by Snow White. She was back at the diner only this time she was in her room. She and her father had seemed to reach an understanding where he seemed to know that Giselle was not ready to forgive him yet and to be honest he was so busy with Lacey that he didn't seem to notice that she only stayed for dinner and booze some nights stumbling her way back to the room she was now renting.

But it was no matter. Long ago Giselle had proved she was a big girl and she didn't need anyone to protect her. Long ago she had proved she could stand up on her own two feet.

She didn't need anyone, Hook, her father, her brother, some people were just meant to be alone and she was willing to bet that she was one of them.

She had just got back to her room when she opened the door to see Snow White standing on the landing. Oh shit was her first thought. Were the Nolan's now spending time trying to get her to change? Giselle was too tired and too hungover both ways to care and she was only in her sports bra, her pyjama shorts and she was painfully aware that there was a half empty bottle of wine on the desk along with a stained glass. Either way she suspected that she was going to have to go home soon regardless of whether or not she felt ready for it. Either way living with an alcoholic and it seemed a constantly horny version of Belle must be better than this crap.

Wow, she had gotten as dark as her father had.

"Can I help you?" she asked trying to remain civil. She had to admit she was somewhat surprised to find Snow White up and about when the rumours that had been circulating since the death of Cora and the woman's hand in it that she had been all but bedridden.

"I heard you were skipping school so spoke to a couple of your teachers and picked up some left over homework" she said with a smile Giselle was too tired to return.

Still, it was a lot better than a lecture.

"Thanks" she said finally. She was aware that the woman's eyes were on the bottle of wine and so she took the books dumping it on the desk and made a show of pouring herself another glass.

"I wish you would let us help you"

Giselle swallowed the glass of wine and smiled turning around to face her.

"I don't need help" she said finally. "There's a lot of shit going on and I don't want to deal with it right now and being dark...well...there's an upside to it"

There was a second where stared at each other.

"I don't know what happened between you and Hook...I don't know what happened in the Enchanted Forest or what happened when you were growing up...I just...don't think that you should be alone"

There was something so tender in the gaze that she was regarding Giselle that it was almost painful. It made her sarcasm melt away.

"Thank you" she said finally. "But I'm going out for dinner and I want to get dressed" and with that she shut the door in her face. Fuck it she thought staring at herself in the mirror. She was drinking straight from the bottle.

* * *

She ran into her brother just as she was leaving the room. He was leaving his and she noticed that his eyes seemed to widen when he caught sight of her. She knew she looked good, Giselle had gone with one of her more revealing dresses, black with holes in the side and the back edged in silver that ended mid-thigh along with her high heeled boots.

"I'm worried" was all he said.

Giselle smirked. This anger that she seemed to be feeding was making her feel so much better than the hurt, loneliness and confusion that she was feeding on before.

"Don't be, I managed fine without you once I can do it again"

"He'll hurt you" was all Neal said.

"I know" Giselle said back. "But the sad thing is I'm used to that"

* * *

Storybrooke. The Clock Tower.

Killian was going to kill these two damn outsiders over this.

He didn't want to think about being back in Storybrooke. He had achieved his revenge and now he had to gain back the trust of his daughter although as this Tamara person had said in her vein attempts to get his blood up (it was working) he had never had her trust to begin with.

"Look" Tamara whispered in his ears and he looked, his eyes straining into the darkness.

And then he saw it.

The Dark One. He was walking with his stick and there were two women with him. One of them was definitely Belle the girl he had shot but she was dressed like a prostitute, definitely not the way she had been dressed before. The other one...the other one was his daughter.

He stared. Giselle was...beautiful...she was so stunning it made his heart hurt. She was dressed in a dress that made the father in him grit his teeth in irritation but there was a part of him that realised in that moment how much his daughter looked like her mother. She was stumbling in a way that made him think that she was almost intoxicated but she was laughing and tilting her head back. She wasn't happy, that much he knew, he could see it on every line of her face.

It hadn't worked. All of his revenge had been for naught.

His daughter was with his enemy again, their bond probably just as strong as before.

But she was unhappy.

Well...that was his job to change that.

* * *

 **And let me know what you think.**

 **I will update as soon as I can.**

 **Next Chapter-Giselle and Killian have an argument that surprisingly leads to a heart to heart, Henry is kidnapped, there is yet another curse, Belle becomes Belle again and Giselle finds something that reminds her of the one secret that she has never told anyone.**


	19. Hell Or High Water

**Hi, so here is another chapter and the end of Season 2. This story is ending at Season 5 so please keep that in mind as we move on into Season 3.**

 **Expect a lot of bonding over the course of Season 3 between Giselle and Killian especially with the Neverland arc coming up and we do get some Neal/Giselle bonding and we get the answer to the 'Edmund' question.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 19-Hell Or High Water

Giselle and Killian have an argument that surprisingly leads to a heart to heart, Henry is kidnapped, there is yet another curse, Belle becomes Belle again, Neal dies (sort of) and Giselle finds something that reminds her of the one secret that she has never told anyone.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped"_** **(Tony Robbins)**

Storybrooke. The Day Before. The Morning.

She had gone looking for a change of clothes and something to drink.

Giselle had gone for her new shorts and a light jumper and some clean underwear. There was a second where she was in the kitchen looking for the bottle of scotch that she so desperately wanted to steal out from under Lacey's nose.

Somethings never did change.

And it was there in the kitchen that she found the box.

The box held the entire new collection of the shop. People that were low in income and rent gave up their personal things. Not to mention there was a reason why her father had been a pawnbroker in this cursed life. He had been one at home. It was curiosity stemmed by something that she didn't know, understand or more to the point care to that made Giselle look inside it.

There was the usual clocks and diamonds and family heirlooms but there was something about the little black velvet pouch she found at the bottom that struck her.

And what fell out made her breath catch in her throat.

Oh she really needed a drink now, that or a good cry.

Preferably she thought as she slammed the door shut and took a look at the weather she would like to do all of the above with a hot shower.

Because there was a flood of memories that came to mind when she held that little necklace with the two gold bands wrapped in between each other that she had loved and hated and thrown away in annoyance and now couldn't stand the thought of being apart from.

 _Edmund._

Shit.

And that was how she found herself in this current predicament.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Day Before.

How she had found out was not important. It might have had something to do with Regina and the outsider as he was now being called but to be honest Giselle was too hungover and too much locked in a circle of pain and self-loathing at the time to care about who it was that told her that Hook was back in town.

Ok so the drinking did not help. Giselle was finding it easier though when she fell asleep if there was some form of booze inside of her. It wasn't just about her father and the lies that he had told, it was Neal and his new fiancé that she still hadn't met not that she was letting that bother her whatsoever. It was the curse, what had happened, images and memories playing on a replay throughout the night.

Sometimes she wondered if she should talk to someone but the bottom line was that, she was not sure whom she should talk to. She had dark secrets that were bubbling up and she knew it too. Moreover, she was alone. Giselle had never minded that in the past, had always managed to make sure that she was alright, that she could survive but she had never had so many options confronted to her before when it had come to who she could talk to. Talking did not come naturally never had and more to the point she was not sure if it ever would.

Therefore, she was not sure what she was doing the night that she decided to go grab a bottle of scotch from the house and sit in her room and drink it. All she knew was that one minute she was in her clothes in her room and the next she was in her boots and had managed to somehow walk down the stairs and out the inn without anyone noticing how drunk she was.

The only problem…well…there were several problems but what seemed like the most pressing at the minute was that she was cold. She was wearing shorts that she had been wearing that day, short black and thin and a thin black jumper with a low cut v neck only because she was to lethargic to change out of what she'd been wearing earlier. In addition, while the weather was still warm during the day at night, it was getting colder and colder and she was now shivering as she attempted to walk in a straight line down the street.

On the plus side, she thought irritably. This might sober her up. Actually, she went back and forth between putting that in the plus or the minus column that her mind had now divided into.

However, despite all the odds she somehow found herself at the docks, still drunk and still in one piece.

Huh?

Stumbling around a pirate ship, especially if you didn't know where that ship was or what or what you were doing on it was probably not a good thing. But Giselle was moving on autopilot.

It would be much later that she realised what that meant. Because subconsciously she had gone to the one place where she imagined she could feel safe. Giselle Jones had gone to her father.

* * *

The Jolly Roger. The Day Before.

Killian had been trying to sleep. Really he had. His ribs were still hurting and he didn't like the idea of Regina tied up like some sort of animal and poked and prodded. It had been one of the reasons why he had left and when he had heard (from skulking around the edges of town and listening to people that didn't know him all that well) that she had been found by Snow White he was rather pleased.

One had to do much to survive in this war, or at least the budding war that was coming.

It took him a while to realise what was going on. There was someone on his ship again. And whoever it was they weren't bothering to be very quiet about it.

In fact...it sounded like whoever it was, was drunk...

Really drunk...

Groaning in annoyance and pain because damn his ribs continued to ache with every move he made.

There was a pause where he stared at who it was when he came to the deck. It was Giselle. Even he could see her in the dark. She was wearing shorts and a jumper and from the look of it her dark hair was still damp thought it was blowing in the wind.

And she was very clearly drunk.

"Ugh" she said waving her hands around as if batting imaginary flies though she was in severe danger of getting tangled in the rigging if she continued.

"Hello" he said cautiously. Killian didn't know honestly if he should be annoyed or amused. He was somewhere between the two if he was honest and he wasn't sure what to do. How the hell were you supposed to deal with your drunken teenage daughter? He thought with a pang, that he had missed even the events that he and Milah would have been angry about.

Giselle turned to look at him only swaying slightly.

"Fair warning, I'm furious at you" she said and Killian was rather impressed. If the half bottle of scotch that she was waving around was anything to go by and she wasn't slurring her words then she had more of a pirate in her he thought grimly than his daughter realised.

"Fair enough" he said trying not to grin as Giselle swayed a little bit.

"Would you like to sit down?"

Giselle shot him another look.

"What the fuck's that gonna do?" she asked and this time Killian really did tip his head back and snort out a laugh.

"I suppose you hate me even more now?" Killian said unsure of why he was going down this particular road now but unable to stop himself.

Giselle snorted again swaying slightly.

"I don't hate you" she said finally. "I mean I do...or I don't...or I...I dunno but right now I don't hate you...I may be too drunk to do much but I don't hate you" and with that she promptly sat on the edge of the box leading to the underground quarters. Killian stared for a second unsure of whether or not to take this...not exactly brilliant statement to heart when he decided to throw caution to the winds and sit down next to her. Most of his daughter's hair was covering her face and there was a ring on her thumb that was clutching the top of the bottle.

"Do you ever wish..." she began in a wistful tone. "That things had been...different?"

"Everyday" he replied truthfully. Giselle snorted. She passed him the bottle and without thinking Killian managed to take a drink. It was stronger than rum and it burned the back of his throat.

"You know I get it..." she said finally. "Why you tried to...i get it, but that doesn't stop me from being angry"

"I know" Killian said because he did know.

"Did you even think of me while you did it?" she asked turning her head to look at him. Killian paused thinking back and then decided to answer truthfully.

"Yes and no" he said finally. "I thought about you when you were a baby, when you used to fit into my arms and latch your finger on mine. There was a second where you would stare at me, at night your mother would hate getting up so I would sooth you back to sleep. I thought about that and how it was taken from me. I thought about you as a baby, I did not think about the strong, beautiful woman that you have become. All I saw was the demon that took away my girls and I wanted him dead. I did not think about him being your father, I will not think of that so don't ask me too, it's too painful"

Giselle stared at him for a long second.

"I don't know what I can give you" she said finally taking the bottle out of his hands and taking another deep swig. "I don't know what I can give anyone. Everyone seems to want something and sometimes it feels like I can't breathe"

Killian stared at her for another heartbeat and then nodded.

"I can understand a little bit of what that's like"

"Can you" Giselle said. It wasn't a question it was more a statement.

"Would you like me to walk you home?" he asked instead though he had to fight back the bile that was rising by taking the bottle that was in her hands and taking another swig.

"No" she said shaking her head. "I don't live there anymore. If you want to find me I'll be at Granny's though I don't recommend it. The Charming's are apparently after your blood"

He winced even though he was more than pleased that Giselle wasn't calling the Crocodile's house 'home' anymore.

"Do you want me to walk you back there?" he asked and then when she didn't reply because apparently he was that open to getting his heart crushed again he added.

"Do you want to stay here? You are a little intoxicated..."

Giselle stared at him for a second that seemed to stretch into an eternity.

He tried not to show his glee at the thought of his daughter bunking down in the ship that had once been her home but he couldn't help but smile as he saw her tied all that dark hair behind her ears. She looked younger with her hair back, more vulnerable than before and he saw that she was wearing boots, short trousers that made his stomach curl in irritation and a thin jumper. He saw that she was shivering slightly as she curled under the blankets in the bed that he had put her in. That might have been his own but he didn't think that that was important at that very second.

He fell asleep in the chair next to the bed and when he woke up the next morning with his daughter still asleep in the bed he thought that he might do something tremendously stupid and go and get her some breakfast.

And that was how he learned that the curse was coming.

As it turned out Giselle also knew. He came back empty handed to find her pulling on her boots and holding something she identified at his confused gaze as a 'phone'

"Come on" she said pulling her hair back again. "We have to get to Emma's."

Well that was going to be a warm welcome.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Day Of. Granny's.

Giselle was hardly surprised when she got to the house and David punched her father, she was only half surprised when she learned he'd been working with Tamara and the stranger whose name was Greg. At that point she'd been stealing the leftover coffee and trying to force herself to drink it. In fact all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and let the world swallow her up but she supposed that she should help.

She'd been helping when she heard about Bae.

Giselle had been down in the diner helping some of the townsfolk who had shown up scared and confused when Emma had come in, there had been a look on her face and something about it had stopped her cold. Giselle had seen that look on her face. She had seen that look once before and she realised what it was with a sickening jolt to the stomach that had had nothing to do with the booze still rolling in her insides.

That had been the look that she had seen on her father's face when he had told her about Rosanna.

Emma stared at her for a second and then walked past her grabbing her hand as she went and taking them in to the hallway.

"Neal was shot" she said without preamble and Giselle blinked once.

"Is he dead?" she asked and she was surprised to hear that her voice was deceptively calm. This was her brother and although she knew what she was going to hear next there was a part of her that knew that this loss wouldn't cut as deep as the others no matter how hard it would be to hear it.

"He fell through a portal" Emma began her voice cracking but Giselle overpowered her, her own strong and she imagined rather unfeeling but there was a need to get the worst over with.

God knows she would never cry in front of Emma Swan again.

"Yes" she said finally.

Giselle took a breath. It didn't feel like it had with Rosanna, that all compressing loss that had blinded her. It didn't feel like Edmund. When he had died she had been so tired and sad that she couldn't tell which way was right or left, this didn't feel like that. Perhaps it was because she didn't know Baelfire as much as she would have liked to but she wasn't feeling the same hurt. It was almost like a part of her believed he was still out there. That or she was still too drunk and too tired and too ready to die to give a shit either way.

And that was when the trouble really started.

Giselle had listened to the first plan and had thought it was terrible. She had also listened to the second plan and thought that was terrible so either way she found she was fine with death. She kicked her feet up onto one of Granny's tables and pulled out of the pocket of her shorts the two ringed necklace interlocking with each other and stared at it.

She wrapped it around her neck tucking it into her shirt and she felt the cool metal rest against her chest. If she was dying then she was remembering that smile and those dimples when she did.

In truth she missed most of the exchange between Hook and Emma and therefore she would later find out most of the chemistry that would make David Nolan dislike him so much. She looked up to see Emma clutching the bag and Hook standing their looking rather lost as everyone filed out the door.

Hook grabbed her arm as she was leaving. "You didn't tell me that your brother was dead" he hissed and Giselle shrugged. It was rather a liberating feeling she found, knowing you were about to die and there was only a slim chance someone could pull a rescue off. Either way she found she was ok with both options.

"I can save you" Hook whispered looking desperate. "I can save you and we can be together"

Giselle raised a hand, she had a feeling that she knew a little bit where this was going. "I don't think you want to finish that sentence" Hook made a noise like he was dying. "Darling please..." he said reaching out curl his hand around her face. "Please let me be a father too you"

Giselle stared at him.

"If that's what you want" she said resisting with everything she had to lean into the touch. "Then I think you know what you have to do"

And it was in the seconds after he turned and left her standing there in the middle of an empty dinner that she realised that for the first time in the Gods knew how long, she hadn't thought of her father, of Rumplestilskin at all.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Day Of. The Docks.

Killian had come back. Well in all fairness he had been stood on his ship before he decided to get back off it. Giselle was his daughter he realised and if she wanted to die then he would stand with her and die with her. His life meant nothing to him if she wasn't in it. However, he had almost forgotten what it was like, his survival instincts were so strong and he had been on his own for so long that he had forgotten what it was like to have someone too actually care for.

Giselle was stood on the docks next to the Dark One. The woman that he had shot...Belle was next to him and by the way she scowled at him Killian was ready to bet she remembered who he was.

It didn't take him long to grasp what was going on. Someone had taken Swan's boy. Killian remembered that feeling of desperation and terror all too well but he also knew that he did not want Swan to go through what he had been through.

If the only way was that he help them then he would gladly do so.

Swan, Regina, Swan's parents and Giselle climbed on board. The Crocodile came up a second later.

"Oh hell no, you're not coming" he said pointing at Giselle and Killian found himself privately agreeing with him.

Giselle raised on pointed eyebrow tucking the black swede jacket she had taken from her room around her. "Dream on" was all she said and then she stalked away her hands in her pockets to join Emma at the top of the ship. Killian stared at her a faint feeling of pride and amusement curdling his stomach. With each passing second his daughter did truly resemble her mother.

He turned around to see the Dark One with an expression of deep exasperation on his features.

"Milah" was all he said.

"Milah" Killian agreed with him.

Whatever moment that was going on between them was interrupted by Swan and thank fuck for that. It didn't take them long to figure out where the strangers had taken Henry.

Neverland.

Well fuck.

He threw the bean into the ocean watched the whirlpool appear and moved as if in slow motion to the back of the ship. Giselle was gripping tightly onto the top of the rigging. Killian shot her a look begging her to keep hold and something must have passed to her because she tightened her grip and shot him a wild look. The same look he realised that Milah had given him whenever he had done something particularly daring.

He turned back to the ship listening to the bloody demon tell the story of perhaps the only villain to rank higher than the Dark One. Well not really but he was in Killian's top three at any rate.

Pan.

There was a second where he snarled once at the wind before he turned the wheel.

Well...what was another villain compared to the one that he had become?

He turned the ship to the water and let it sink into the whirlpool the wind howling around them.

And then they were gone.

And behind them, the water turned back to its brilliant smooth shape, leaving no trace of the ship and the seven people that had been on it.

* * *

 **And let me know what you think.**

 **I will update as soon as i can.**

 **Next Chapter-First Chapter of Season 3-We head to Neverland where our hero's come up against the most dangerous foe they've ever faced. On board the Jolly Roger Giselle battles a storm, rediscovers her fight and learns her father's most heartbreaking secret.**


	20. The Storm (Has Just Begun)

**Hi here is the first chapter of Season 3 so enjoy.**

 **I am watching Season 6 right now but unless this is the last season of OUAT (pray it's not) I don't think it will be included in this story .**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 20-The Storm (Has Just Begun)

First Chapter of Season 3. We head to Neverland where our heroes come up against the most deadliest villain yet with the stakes the highest. However, on board the Jolly Roger, Giselle battles a storm, finally regains her fight and learns her father's most heart-breaking secret yet.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _The sea is dangerous and its storms terrible, but these obstacles have never been sufficient reason to remain ashore"_** **(Ferdinand Magellan)**

The Jolly Roger. Killian's Perspective.

There was a bump and then there was a stilling sensation that came so often with portal jumping. There was a second where time seemed to stand still and then with a groan the ship settled and the people on board were finally able to pick themselves up off his deck.

He thankfully had managed to keep himself standing due to sheer force of will and the fact that he had done this before. So had he noticed with irritation, the Dark One who was now walking with a purpose and no limp towards the top deck. Regina was windswept, holding tightly onto the rope and looked a little weak at the knees but she was pulling herself together with an impressive skill but the Charming's, Emma and Giselle were all sprawled on the floor due to the impact.

He stepped forwards intent on pulling Giselle who was swearing under her breath in several languages that she must have learned in the Enchanted Forest. He grinned for a second before he realised that the Dark One was already pulling his daughter to her feet and that she was smiling her thanks to him in a way that she had never done to him. It made his stomach curdle at the thought.

Swan was pulling herself to her feet swearing the same as Giselle but her jaw was set. She brushed off both her parents and stalked to the front of the damn ship in three long sweeping moments that would have put some to shame. He could see the Charming's look of concern but before he could do anything he remembered that he needed to actually steer the fucking ship before he ended up capsizing on a reef.

Emma was down by the end of the ship staring into the sea as if she expected Henry her boy to appear in the dark like an imploring duckling. And before he could even see if Giselle was alright she had moved sharply to stare over the side of the nearest bit she could find and Regina had taken her place asking him a question about heroes of all things.

"Do you think he was right?" she asked quietly when telling him what that fucking outsider had told her. He considered it for a second and then without warning he realised he was staring at Giselle's back, the way her dark hair was blowing in the wind and the fact that he couldn't see her face.

"I hope not" he said truthfully. "Otherwise you and I have wasted most of our lives"

She shot him a small smile that Killian took to meant that he was forgiven for helping the outsiders capture her.

And he thought the mother was strange.

The Dark One immediately stalked off to find a place to formulate a plan. Regina scoffed and immediately followed tossing her head back imperiously. The Charming's were attempting to talk to their daughter who was steadily growing angry and that just left him and Giselle on the top part of the deck the latter looking over into the sea with an expression of interest on her face. There was a second where they stared at each other and then Giselle finally spoke.

"So...mermaids?" she said finally.

"Oh yes there'll be mermaids" he said bitterly. Giselle stared at him.

"I remember reading a book about mermaids as a child" she said finally. "There was one about a mermaid that had wanted to be human so badly that she would trade her voice in for it" she shook her head lost in her own little world. "I used to have it read to me all the time"

"The Dark One read bedtime stories?" Killian asked unable to keep the tone of derision out of his voice even though his heart was aching.

"Yes...No...Sometimes..." she said finally. "Rosanna read them to me most of the time..." she cut off whatever was coming out of her mouth as if she wanted to pretend that it had never happened.

"No I want to know..." he said trying to keep the need in his voice to a bare minimum. He had been denied the knowledge of his daughter's life for so long that he was prepared to hear any story no matter how big or how small...no matter how painful it was for him.

There was a second where Giselle stared at him as if she was trying to figure out whether or not he was serious. "Rosanna was my...guardian somewhat...when my father was away...she was the primary caretaker for me" she gave him another long stare. "She was the closest thing that I had to a mother"

There was a pounding in his ears and there was a thudding in his heart that made him sick. Milah and he should have been the ones that had all of that. He should have been the one tucking his daughter in bed and telling her stories about mermaids and princesses and unicorns.

"Is she in Storybrooke?" he asked quietly.

"No" Giselle said shortly. "She's dead"

"Oh" Killian said feeling the urge to kick himself at closed expression he was faced with.

"Is this really what you do all day?" she asked in a vague attempt to change the subject. "Do you really just stare at the sea all day and...And what? Hope that you see something...hope that you see land? I mean? Aren't you board?"

"No" Killian said shaking his head. "I can show you how to sail if you want?"

Giselle's mouth twisted a little in a smirk that upon further recognition could have passed for a smile. "Perhaps" was all she said but it was a maybe and Killian was greedy enough to take that as it was.

And then the moment was of course naturally ruined by...well...the Dark One...who had decided to leave...as well as get a costume change which was...well not effective in the slightest.

Judging by Giselle's expression of a twisted amusement and a sought of resigned recognition this was not the first time that this had happened. It made his stomach tighten with something unidentified.

"I can come with you if you want" she said quietly as soon as the bastard had stopped pointing out all that Emma had done wrong in her life and how they were going to fail this mission, a part of Killian wanted to say that there was no fucking way she was going with him but then he realised that there was no way that Giselle would listen to him, not in the same way that she would listen to the Dark One.

"No" the Crocodile said smiling with a sort of gentleness that Killian had never seen before. It lasted a split second and then his gaze flickered over to Killian and he just knew he wasn't going to like what was coming next.

"Spend some time with your father for a change"

Giselle stared, it was almost as if she was struggling to figure out the right thing to say and then she burst out "I don't want to". Well. That did hurt and judging by the smile on Gold, that was what he was known at in this world wasn't it? That was exactly what he was going for.

And then he was gone. The stick spinning widely on the deck and then there was no more Dark One.

Emma stalked off muttering something about getting ready for a fight. Regina had already took her coat off and had sat back on one of the crates looking as if she belonged there on his ship. He supposed that was how she managed to get away with everything...looking as if she belonged, as if she was born to sit there or stand there or whatever.

It was quite frankly unnerving.

The Charming's immediately broke away in order to debate what they were going to do next or whatever it was that they did when they were together. Killian did not know because all that talk of hope and peace and forgiveness made his teeth hurt when he listened to it too long.

That just left Giselle at the deck of the ship still staring with what looked like a rather vicious expression (her face was half shrouded in shadow) etched on her face.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently. He wanted to reach out and touch her but he wasn't sure if that would be alright. He extended his hand out greed overcoming his desire to respect Giselle's boundaries but the second he did she turned around and he snatched his arm back to his side trying to pretend that it had never been raised.

"Fine" she said with such false bravado that it hurt to even hear. She plastered what seemed like the emptiest fake smile that he had ever seen. He meant to take a step backwards but she sighed and leaned back against the side of the ship looking for lack of a better word...guilty.

"Sorry" she said finally. "About before...i didn't mean to hurt you or...it's just he infuriates me when he does this"

"This?"

"This" she gestured. "Disappear without warning, he used to do it all the time when I was a kid, drove me fucking mad. Hell he did it the night he was captured" she levelled a scowl in the direction of the Charming's. "All that foresight and he didn't tell me he was going to be captured" she shook her head. "Sometimes he's unbelievable."

"But you still love him" he pointed out and then immediately kicked himself for even mentioning it. "Yeah" she said frowning a little at him. "He was all I had"

"Well now you have me" he said before his brain could catch up with the words that were swimming around in his brain, words he so desperately longed to speak.

Giselle shot him another long look and then sighed. "Yeah" she said finally. "I suppose I do...do you have a bathroom or...a place where I can get some water? I don't think the booze I drank or the sea agree"

"Yes" Killian said pointing her in the direction. He needed to go and see if Emma was alright and that was the only reason he told himself that he was following her. Giselle had proved time and time again that she could take care of herself. That she didn't need him. As much as he might want to.

Besides. There was something about Emma that made him want to make sure that she was alright. He knew intimately the pain that she must be going through and the insanity that it would bring if it was not control or resolved soon.

Yes. He knew all about what Emma was going through.

At least there was a chance they would find Henry in time and there was always a possibility they would find him before any real damage was done, at least by Pan.

* * *

The Jolly Roger. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle managed to make it down to what must have been Killian's cabin before she collapsed onto the bed. Sea, drink and a lack of food did not agree with her whatsoever and now she was trying to sleep some of it off. There was a second where she laid down on the bed and breathed in the scent that was oddly comforting and try to get some sleep when she sat up again.

There was something about being below the ship at least sober that made her want to get up and explore despite how much she knew she'd regret it. This would have been her home, this would have been where she would have lived and this for a fact would have been where she would have been happy. Of that she was certain.

The hallways were made of study wood and Giselle was rather surprised to see that the rocking wasn't so bad. There was a section where the crew must have slept but that was taken up by her...by her father...and by Emma. How easy it was now that she was here, away from the confines of Storybrooke to remember it.

There was a second room opposite the cabin that she had just come out of. It was near something that vaguely resembled a kitchen and Giselle dusted her fingertips over the door. It was almost like she'd be crossing some sort of unknown line. There was a second where she stared at it before she pushed the door open and slipped inside.

The room was dusty. It was small what looked like a desk and a small set of draws were tucked away in the corner but as she looked around it was the thing in the middle that caught her eye and the breath was promptly knocked out of her throat. There in the room was a crib. It was small and ornate and there was what looked like pink blankets in the middle of it, curled just next to a little pillow was what looked like a tiny stuffed dragon, it's teeth were white, it's scaly and blue and she supposed to get something like this in the Enchanted Forest Hook would have had to spent some...well not hard earned but decent money.

There was a second where she stared at it, this long held away secret that had once been her room. Hook had either kept it as a shrine or in some hope that he would get her back one day but if there had ever been any doubt that he'd had the hope to get her back then this was disproving it with each passing second.

She wasn't sure whether or not to break down crying when it came to what she was seeing but she wiped the sudden wetness in her eyes and she bit her lip. She wanted...God she wanted a hug...she wanted someone to put their arms around her and tell her that she was going to be ok. Her father was gone and her other biological father...God she had hated him, she had hated him, hell she had thought about killing him.

She wondered briefly whether or not he would still like her when he found out about it.

However Giselle was pulled out of her innermost arguing with herself when there was a sudden launch of the ship and the sound of footsteps running right past her. She waited until it sounded like Hook and Emma had gone and took another deep breath wiping her eyes again, as much as a part of herself wanted to stay down below until the danger had passed safe and sound in what had once been a relic of her childhood, the one that she had never had at any rate, she knew that that wasn't possible and with another deep breath she slipped open the door and followed the sounds of the shouting up to the top deck.

The top deck looked like a bomb site. The waves were crashing now hard and the rain was pouring down. In the middle of the ship was what looked like a wooden mermaid but what drew her attention was the two fights that were going on in the middle. Regina and Snow White were going at it like their lives depended on it, Giselle took a split second to be amused by the fact that the Evil Queen had a mean right hook without the extra help of magic. Quite frankly if this fight had, had happened sooner then she might have had a decent childhood free of the worry of the Evil Queen's hell coming down on her. The second fight however was the one that caught her attention.

It was Hook and Charming battling it out like it was the end times. Emma was still stood at the side watching like she didn't have a clue what she was going to do...some savior, Giselle thought with derision. However there was something coming to the surface when she watched Charming get the upper hand. It was like the rage she had once directed at Hook. It was strange seeing it directed at someone else.

Long ago Edmund had taught Giselle how to fight on one of those days where they had known evil was coming but they were still trapped in limbo. So they had wasted away so much time trying to be prepared for a fight that ultimately they knew they would lose and now they were doing that again.

Giselle moved without thinking pushing back Emma and kicked her foot directly where the back of Charming's knee connected. He swore and went down easy and she grinned savagely at the look of surprise on Hook's face that then turned into the same savage glee. However Charming didn't stay down for long. He came back up snarling once and Giselle snarled back over the roar of the thunder that was crashing down around them.

Charming tried to push her out the way but Giselle was ready for him. She turned her body catching her knee in his chest and then punched him backwards she landed on her feet and tried not to imagine dimples or the way the next move had knocked her on her ass and someone had grabbed it.

There was a second where Charming stared at her from where he was on his ass. Suddenly there was a fury that she couldn't control and she reached forward with her booted foot to kick him in the ribs but before she could she saw Emma's desperate white face in the darkness of surrounded by the sea and then she saw the blonde hair whip straight into the sea.

Her father caught her expression at the same time Snow White finally managed to see what her daughter was doing. Over the screaming Giselle realized what had happened. "Oh shit" was all that she could say.

They rushed to the side of the ship Giselle furiously wiping her now wet hair out of her eyes.

"Shit" was all she said over Regina's exasperated "Idiot"

It appeared that Charming was the one doing the rescuing and he all but knocked everyone else out of the way in his urge to leap overboard. Once the rope was tied around him he seemed calmer but Giselle noticed with a slight twinge of pride that his left leg where she had kicked was now hanging at a slight limp.

Emma came up with a mass of blonde hair that was wet and sticking to her face. She looked like one of the broken dolls Giselle would see in her father's workshop. It was...unnerving to say the least. There was a second where they stared at each other and then Emma breathed in sharp and harsh and then there was a second where everyone seemed to breathe again.

"Well look at that" Emma said breathing harshly. "The storm stopped"

That seemed to be a simplification of things Giselle thought as she stood there in her boots and shorts and light jumper her hair plastered to her back and the wind beginning to make her shiver.

The storm it seemed, had just begun.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-In which there is a meeting and a fight with Pan, Emma shares a secret and Giselle and Hook have a series of moments.**

 **Updates may be few and far between for the next few weeks due to a crippling workload so be aware. **


	21. Paper Orphans

**Hi, so here is another chapter, this one covers the events of Lost Girl.**

 **The Edmund part of this arc will be continued during the Neverland arc itself which I expect to take maybe another four chapters, also covered will be Killian and Bae's first meeting which I couldn't fit into the last chapter of Season 2.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 21-Paper Orphans

In which there is a meeting, a map, a fight with Pan, Emma shares a secret and Giselle and Killian have a series of moments.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death"_** **Coco Chanel**

Neverland. Killian's Perspective.

This was starting to get ridiculous. Actually it was starting to get really bloody annoying but Killian refrained from doing things that 'helped' so to avoid losing his temper and hitting David Nolan on the head whenever he tried to take charge of a plan that was becoming more and more insane by the second. He had pointed out once that he had been the only person of this little ragtag group that had actually been in Neverland and therefore he might actually be better than Emma to lead this mission but he wasn't sure if he would be alive upon completion of the thought.

They had been nearing the end of the path that would lead them to the Dark Forest that would give them the advantage of seeing Pan's camp when the morning broke. They had been walking for several hours now and it was beginning to take its toll on all of them. Killian knew that Swan's boy's life may be depending on them rescuing him as fast as they could but he also knew that them arriving at his camp broken down and exhausted would not gain them the advantage they so desperately needed.

Giselle particularly was struggling thought to her credit she was doing a rather impressive job of making sure that nobody realised that. It was clear however that this amount of uphill walking was not going well for her and he lagged a little behind to keep up with her.

"Here" he said holding out his water flask, a different one than the one that usually contained rum. She raised an eyebrow and he grinned at her.

"Its water" he said and she took it taking a long gulp. "Thanks Cap" she said finally wiping her mouth on the back of her hand.

There was a second where Killian didn't know how to react. Cap? Ok so it was better than Hook but...

"You know you don't have to call me that" he said catching up with her. His brain was screaming at him to stop talking but he couldn't and he wasn't sure if the consequences were worth it.

"What should I call you then?" she said smiling in a twisted form of amusement.

Oh so many ways to answer that question.

Apparently life had not taught him enough when it had come to keeping his mouth shut around the women in his life and when he answered it was with the one thing he had so desperately craved ever since that dry night Milah had told him that she was with child. Well...the name had changed a little in the world that Giselle had grown up in.

"I believe that they call it, Dad in your world" he said finally. Giselle paused staring at the tree in front of her and then slowly turned to stare at him. There was a second where they stared at each other, her expression was unreadable and Kilian knew however just by looking at her what her reaction was going to be if he pressed this issue further.

"Too much?" he said finally trying desperately to regain his footing. Giselle stared at him for a second longer and then nodded "Yeah" she said finally turning and forcing herself on forwards so that it was a strain to hear the next words. "Yeah, too bloody much"

Whatever he was going to say in response to that was cut off as he forced himself to walk next to her and then in front of her a little in order to control his expression from those dark haunting eyes.

There was a second where he tried to control his expression and then he heard a banging and then some swearing that would have made him smirk had the whole crashing not taken his attention. He turned around one hand on his sword to see Giselle lying flat on her back swearing to the stars.

"Are you alright?" he asked staring at the figure of his daughter who was spread out on her back her leg having tangled in the vines that were crawling over the trees and ground. Giselle rolled her eyes. "Shoot me now." She muttered accepting the hand that he offered she allowed Killian to pull her to her feet and help brush away the mud that was now coating her shorts.

"Anywhere hurt?" he asked gently. She was still gripping his hand and he wasn't going to do anything that would disrupt that major miracle.

Giselle considered and then shook he head. "Sorry" she said letting go of his hand and the skin burned with the phantom touch.

"I'm not really one for walking" she said shaking her head her dark hair flying. "Fuck" she said again tucking it behind her ears. "I have to tie this back when we finally stop." she shot Killian a look.

"We are stopping right?"

"We need to" Killian said grimly. "But I'll be damned if anyone one of that lot listens to me"

Giselle rolled her eyes wiping mud of her hands. "I suppose that you have a point" she admitted grudgingly. "But I don't like this whole walking thing, I never did much"

Little pieces of information like this was all that he longed for and so it was with a secondary intent that he forced himself to listen to the information that was being given despite the fact that he so desperately wanted to know more.

"You didn't venture outdoors much" he said walking next to her as they slowly followed the sounds of what seemed to be an argument concerning Emma, Regina and Snow White again.

"No" Giselle said shaking her head. "Not unless I was on horseback and even when I was in the castle or in my cottage most of the times it was short distances. There wasn't much point when everywhere you went there was a protection charm" she caught Killian's frown and shrugged.

"In the grand scheme of things it was probably for the best. He's well...he's the Dark One" she said shaking her head with a faint smile.

"And when he was in prison?" he asked "What did you do then?"

"I went back to the cottage, lived in obscurity for the most part and met..."

"Met?" he dithered.

Killian had apparently pushed too far however because Giselle's expression shut down and she pressed forwards into the clearing where it seemed that Snow White and Prince Charming had won their argument against the two angry mothers to set up camp for the night. Killian did notice Giselle's relieved look before it fell into a tired one her hands once again finding that chain around her neck.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. Giselle's Perspective. The Cottage.

There was something nice about waking up to a sense of freedom. Of course she had been free before but Giselle had always been on the tight leash of both Rosanna and her father and she was still unsure of how to live her life free.

She had taken on some mending work for the local seamstress and it paid little but the money that Rosanna had kept away in her little strongbox had managed to keep her fed and fire in the grate. The cottage was so small and tiny and the land in compete disarray due to Snow White and Prince Charming being at the other end of it that it seemed that nobody was keeping up with the taxes for very long.

So therefore her days were long and mostly uneventful. At least until dinner time. The tavern was always bursting with the gossip that contained wild stories of the war and Giselle would take her seat next to the bar and devour her bread, cheese and meat and it was all in the hope to see the dimpled smile that came when Edmund came in and took sight of her.

But one night she had a reason to seek him out. They had been dancing around whatever they were when it came to each other due to both his calling towards the war (as all young men did these days) and her inability (she suspected) of keeping a relationship alive when she had never seen one up close (she refused to think of whatever Belle was to her father for fear it would keep her up at night) and therefore they had danced and laughed and drank but had never gone for more than that.

Despite Giselle's desire to take it more Edmund had been nothing but a gentlemen he lived with his grandfather who was one of the village elders and due to the good manners that had been installed in him he had managed to make sure that she was home safe and sound ever night with no mention of anything improper.

"Hello" Edmund said brushing the rain of his cloak and ordering them both another tankard of ale. Giselle smiled back at him.

"I want to ask you something" she said finally chewing on the last corner of bread.

"Go on?" Edmund said beaming. Giselle smiled back and if that smile made Edmund's grow wider then that was just her cross to bear.

"I want you to teach me how to fight"

* * *

Neverland. Giselle's Perspective.

They had been travelling all day. Following the map that Emma and Regina were hoping against all hope would lead them to Henry. Personally Giselle didn't see how they could be that lucky especially when it was clear that someone other than them was running the show but if Emma and Regina were set on this plan and the Charming's were following them both like imploring ducklings complete with bobbing heads then who was Giselle to argue?

Once she had properly rested she found she was able to keep up though if Emma had had her way they wouldn't have set up camp for the night and they would have been walking all night. Well...whatever night and day was in this place. As far as she could tell it all seemed to blend together.

They had reached the clearing where the map had leaded them too and something about it made the hairs on Giselle's head stand on end. She was so desperately tired, it didn't seem what had happened had registered not with all of this walking they were doing.

And then he arrived. Pan

For someone that both Hook and her father seemed to think was the devil incarnate he had not measured up to Giselle's expectancy. That was of course before she saw the Lost Boys.

And she was unarmed. Shit.

"Killian" she said her urgency so strong that she lapsed and slid into his first name causing him to look round in shock. "I need a sword of something now"

Numbly he slid his spare sword to her and she tested it, it wasn't the same as the one that Edmund had taught her to fight with all those years…well really a year ago in the forest where they had fought and kicked and kissed like it was all the same thin, it wasn't like the two daggers she had found much more appealing shortly afterwards but she could grip it rather well and she found that she could swing it too, which made some difference.

Not much. Because my God the Lost Boys could fight.

Giselle ducked spinning away from Hook as the fight began. It was easy enough to kick the first one down with a sharp boot to the stomach but the other three that were surrounding her were older and had sharper sticks dripping with thick poison. She ducked the first one and her sword came up to meet his stick, deftly she knocked it out the way and then ducked again as his fist came out, she threw two punches herself managed to push him against the tree and then turn to block the other two coming at her. She had just got the second one on his ass when Pan signalled and all of the Lost Boys began running away.

Giselle realised then that she was shaking slightly. Adrenaline and a combination of the fact that it had been a year since she had fought someone and technically twenty-eight if you looked at Storybrooke's timeline were beginning to take its toll. Not to mention she suspected that one of the bastards had placed a well-aimed kick to the ribs somewhere down the line.

"Are you alright?" came a voice and she turned to see Killian coming towards her, his face was filled with concern and something a little like pride. It was unnerving to say the least.

"Yeah" she said shaking her head. "Just out of practice"

"Who taught you how to do that?" he asked his hand still burning on her wrist. Giselle thought for a second of a dimpled smile and hands on her waist and that feeling you get when you think you have a future only to have it snatched away from you because of something that neither you nor anyone else can control.

"A friend" she said finally and in an effort to change the subject least she run her sword through Snow White or start crying she offered it back to him.

"Nah darling" he said shaking his head. "You keep it"

Giselle blinked at him and then nodded. It was amazing she realised how her memories were coming back, things were slamming into her with no care for the emotional upheaval it caused and she swallowed looking down at her boots, which were now caked in mud along with her knees.

Wow, what she would kill for a shower.

Moreover 'darling'? Really where had that come from?

Nevertheless, did she mind?

The answer as much as she did not want to admit it was no.

"Killian alright?" she asked finally struggling to get her voice under control.

"For a while?"

Hook…no Killian was staring at her with that unfathomable pride in his eyes and then he nodded once, when he spoke his voice was very soft and there was something about it that made Giselle want to curl up somewhere and try and forget about all that she had lost. It made her want to be protected…it made her want her _dad_.

And no. that was where she was stopping this line of conversation because she was in no way ready to tackle that question.

Not when there was so much unsaid or unknown.

"Yeah darling it's alright"

Giselle nodded and when they walked out of the clearing despite not getting, the results that they wanted Giselle realised that she personally had left with the knowledge that despite what she had believed growing up, she was not an orphan.

And that was more than what she had always believed and she found when she walked away with Killian walking next to her, that her heart, her very being perhaps felt lighter.

And Giselle found that that was one of the better feelings that she had ever had.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-In Neverland Killian and Giselle continue to make small steps towards the their relationship as they meet a friend from Killian's past and learn a secret that might derail there entire mission. Meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest, Giselle's relationship with Edmund takes a turn as the rumours about the curse increase, and Killian remembers the first time that he met Bae and what transpired between them.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	22. Battle Scars

**Hi, another chapter for you all to enjoy.**

 **I am without both Netflix (and at one point a lack of wifi) at the moment so i am behind on my OUAT. I am publishing this now with some changes-the kiss between Hook and Emma and the whole David saga will be addressed in the next chapter along with the echo caves, i know that is a little AU but this whole story is AU. I wanted Bae's return to be in line with the scenes between him and Hook in 2x22 but i did not have room to put it in the Season 2 arc so here it is.**

 **Also a lot of time jumps in this chapter so please be aware.**

 **Hope that clears everything up.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 22-Battle Scars

In Neverland Killian and Giselle continue to make small steps towards their relationship as they meet a friend from Killian's past and learn that a secret that might derail there entire mission. Meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest, Giselle's relationship with Edmund takes a turn as rumours about the curse increase and Killian remembers the first time he met Bae and what transpired between them.

* * *

 ** _These battle scars, don't look like they're fading. Don't look like they're ever gonna change. These battle scars._** **(Lupe Fiasco)**

Neverland. The Present. Killian's Perspective.

Oh it would have to be Tink wouldn't it. it would just have to be Regina that had pissed her off all those years ago and it would just have to be Killian who was now once again traipsing through undergrowth trying to find his infernal friend (and once...emphasis on once) lover and stop her from committing a murder that many had fantasied about.

Giselle was following him her hand on her sword and her face determined. She was doing remarkably well since they had arrived for someone, as she had said, that was not used to walking long distances. She had offered him nothing since that admission but she had finally it seemed settled on calling him Killian. It was a far cry from what he wanted but he had to admit it was much better than he had hoped for. It seemed a lifetime since she had stood on that boat and told him she didn't need him and while she was still guarded and closed off there was a sense that she might be finally opening up.

So here they were heading to rescue the Evil Queen from a fairy that she might have wronged. Hell this was Regina so it was defiantly wronged. Either way this was not how Killian wanted to start this day. All he wanted was to get the hell of this damn island as soon as humanly possible.

Tink looked...well dreadful so still much the same. her eyes lightened in a sort of twisted recognition and then her eyes fell to Giselle who was trying to avoid getting hit in the face by David's elbow as the ailing man tried (and failed) to keep his sword up.

She raised an eyebrow at him completely ignoring Emma's vow that she would help them or else and Killian knew at once what she was asking. Tink knew his story and he knew hers and more to the point he wanted to tell her everything. Everyone here was not on his side, at least not when it came to Giselle. Oh they might find him better than the Dark One though he would wager they didn't think by how much.

Giselle for the most part was watching the two of them with a rather board expression. If she had figured out the truth of his and Tinkerbelle's rather colourful relationship then she was doing a fabulous job of keeping it to herself. He nodded his answer at her unspoken question and Tink turned her attention elsewhere. It seemed however that only his clever daughter had managed to see the conversation that had silently taken place.

But before Killian could look at her again Giselle had turned her head away and was now staring at the sword she was holding with the detached expression that he had seen before.

Killian nearly stumbled when he realised that he had not seen that expression before. He had seen it on someone else, someone else who had that terribly cold way of looking at you, someone else who had always had the power to ensure that he would never feel enough, would never be enough. It had been the first shot at fatherhood, a chance to rebuild what had been taken from him and he had failed at it.

He knew who his daughter reminded him off. She reminded him of her brother. She reminded him of Bae.

* * *

The Jolly Roger. Neverland. The Past. Killian's Perspective.

He had been standing on the prow of his ship for a long time. The workers around him were silent and uncaring of what their Captain was doing. They were sworn to follow him that much was true but they were doing a fabulous job of ensuing that they were background players to whatever it was that was taking his interest.

Oh some of them had heard rumours, thankfully only Smee was still around from that time where he had held his daughter with two hands and watched Milah stitching that blanket that would keep her safe and secure.

He could still feel the grip of Giselle's little fingers. It was like an ache that gripped his hand and his heart. She had been so strong for a babe and now she was gone and her mother with her and here he was a broken man chasing a myth for a revenge that would kill him.

But by the Gods death would be a sweet release. Especially if he got the Dark One before he went.

His musings were interrupted by a boy abruptly being pulled on deck. Honestly. He was getting annoyed with Pan and the Lost ones. He had promised them no harm and was getting tired of having to turn children back over to their nightmare of a leader in order to keep the fragile truce he needed so desperately alive.

There was something so horribly detached in the boy's expression that Killian couldn't help but know he would lie when Felix came looking. He allowed Smee to give the boy a blanket and stomped down to get a look at him because there was something so oddly familiar about him that he couldn't put his finger on it.

The boy was talking about his father and Killian was honestly just hoping that he would stop talking because really? They all had father issues and he didn't like being constantly reminded of the one thing that he had so privately craved and how it had been taken from him.

However there was one thing that the boy said that made him pay attention. Something about the boy's father being a coward. It seemed a lifetime since that day where he had lost his family, he dwelled on it every day but there was another memory pushing forwards now, a version with a beggar that he had tormented, of a boy who had to be raised alone and the nights where Milah had cursed her husband for his cowardice only to curse herself for not taking her boy with her.

"What's your name?" he growled again. If there was even an inch worth of suspicion to what he thought the name was then he wanted to be sure. He needed to be sure.

"Baelfire" the boy spat back.

It was like losing a hand all over again.

There was no way in all of the different realms hells that he was letting this boy out of his sight.

This was not only Milah's boy. This was Giselle's brother.

He swallowed. "Well Baelfire" he said finally forcing words past his swollen throat. "It's the pirate's life for you"

* * *

Neverland. The Present. Giselle's Perspective.

They were tracking through more and more undergrowth in desperate need to find a place to keep camp. Emma and Regina had finally both fallen to the idea that they would need sleep and Giselle was more than thankful because she was beginning to lose feelings in her legs. Her knees were bloody due to a tumble in a thorny bush that was holly berry rather than dreamshade and she was covered in dirt. She had tied her hair back off her face into a loose ponytail but she knew she looked very different from the girl that had left Storybrooke.

Finally they managed to get to a clearing with what looked like a premade fire. it wasn't uncommon she supposed, they were sharing this land with the Lost Ones and they left tracks all over the island, so random that there was no way they could track them back to one source. This was probably the way that Pan liked it but Giselle for once was not bothered. A premade fire was one that could easily be remade and she was more than happy to sit at the fire and watch the dancing embers as she tried to remember what a bed felt like.

Just as she was wondering what she wanted more, a bed, a shower or perhaps a large cup of white hot chocolate (that she kept in the back of the cupboard and touched only on very rare occasions where she was feeling so cold and down it was the only option), Killian finally came and sat down on the log next to her. Giselle tried not to stare too much, she didn't want to let him know how close to closing her eyes and collapsing on his shoulder and falling asleep.

"You're doing very well" he said quietly. "I know you're tired"

She tried to shot him a look but instead just slid of the log onto the floor so that she could try and curl up and fall asleep. Jesus had it been nearly three days since they had set foot on this accursed island? There was a second where Killian stared at her and then he said from where he was sat on the log.

"Do you want to lean on me for a while?"

It seemed like a double question that she didn't have a clue how to answer.

But exhaustion and a mixture of adrenaline was creeping over her and she fell asleep against his legs without another word or worry. She would wake up in a couple of hours when Emma's exhaustion was ruined by her worry and she would have a private panic attack over what this meant for her and Killian's relationship but that...that was for another time.

And when she dreamed, she did like she had since the day she had set foot on this damn island. Giselle dreamed of Edmund.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Past. Giselle's Perspective.

They had been sparring for the better part of the day.

Giselle had woken and changed into a loose pair of pants that she had bought from the clothes stall. They were black and were tied with a small belt at the side. She tucked in her small white shirt that went with it. It had been the top of an old gown that she had long since grown out of and it had long sleeves that tucked into her wrists and frills on the side. Safe to say it had not been her favourite dress. She had tied back her hair in a loose plat and she was gripping the sword that she had been given. In all it looked to anybody that would happen to pass by (not that there was going to be one) that this was a fun activity to pass the time.

But this wasn't fun. Not when this curse the Evil Queen was in the process of casting was looking more and more likely by the day.

Edmund was standing opposite her grinning.

They had been doing this all day. Twirling and whirling around each other and much to Giselle's amusement she was winning the last two rounds using her legs to wipe Edmund out on his ass the last time he had been near her.

She had a cut lip and she was willing to bet a bruise on her cheekbone and Edmund was sporting a bloody nose and a cut on his arm but she was feeling alive for the first time in a long time and she was gleeful with it.

Edmund moved forward and the sword clashed again. Giselle curled one leg around him and tried to flip him around but he was too fast for her this time, he flipped her so she landed hard on her ass but she was up again to meet his next blow and the rest that followed until finally they were at a stalemate each one refusing to move their swords before the other did.

There was a second where she debated what to do but then she finally threw caution to the winds letting her sword drop and curling one arm around him and finally kissing him.

Edmund dropped his sword with a clatter and Giselle used it push him to the floor. The kiss was warm and soft and when he looked up at her Giselle realised she was half on top of him, sweaty and aching and so hopelessly dizzy with desire.

Edmund flipped her over and she found her legs were curled around him. She was rather glad that she had decided that their lessons were to take place far away from the prying eyes of the village and in the back-garden of her own cottage.

"Well this was not how I saw this going" she said finally. Edmund laughed and the sound was rich and warm and she found herself shivering under his touch.

"Your one hell of a mystery Giselle Jones" he said finally. And he kissed her again as light as a feather in a way that made her want more.

* * *

Neverland. The Present. Giselle's Perspective.

When Giselle opened her eyes it took her a while to realise where she was. For a second she thought she had been back in the light grass and Edmund was leaning over her and the world seemed bright and forever open, it had been her first relationship, the first time that she had ever felt desired by a man or desired any man. Edmund had been her first for...well...everything...

She realised then that she was in Neverland but she didn't understand why she felt so warm. Sitting up her eyes still clouded with sleep she saw what looked like a black leather coat surrounding her. She turned around and looked up and saw to her surprise Killian.

He had slid of the log at some point and he was asleep. She had fallen asleep with her head in his lap and he had wrapped his coat around her shoulders, it was so large that she felt so small in it, like a child and she was foolishly happy for the protection. Killian was asleep next to her and without his coat on he looked...younger.

Everyone was asleep and the mood in the camp was easier than it had ever been before. Giselle's eyelids felt heavy and when she closed them it took another second before she fell asleep again.

She didn't even notice that Killian's one remaining hand had been near her hair as if before he had been falling asleep he had been debating whether or not to run his hand through it.

* * *

Neverland. The Past. The Jolly Roger.

Bae had settled into his life on board the Jolly Roger with gusto. It warmed what was left of Killian's twisted and mangled heart to see Milah's boy strutting around the ship with a smile on his face like he owned it. He realised once that Bae would have made an excellent big brother and the realised that it had been the first time that he had thought of Giselle without his heart clenching in his chest.

So then naturally it all went to hell.

Bae found the picture of Milah. And then he found the stuffed dragon toy that had been Giselle's for a little while. And he had put two and two together. Or at least as far as he was concerned he had. He had thought that Killian had killed Milah. Well wasn't that a question for the ages?

"Who's the baby?" he said finally after Killian had tried to explain the complicated relationship that had been whatever the hell Milah had had with her first husband, the death that still haunted him, the fact that she had always hated herself for never going back for him.

"Mine...your...sister" he said finally shrugging helplessly. Bae's eyes widened and he looked down at the toy still clutched in his hand.

"Where is she?" he asked. Killian shrugged helplessly.

"She was taken by your father the day he killed your mother. He's killed her probably" he added bitterly.

Bae snorted. "My father is ruled by dark magic now perhaps more than ever" he said in a voice of terrible coldness. "But even he would not hurt an innocent baby"

Killian wanted to snort but his insides were so frozen he didn't think he could make a sound.

Bae stared at him with contempt in every line of his face.

"You tore apart my family" he said his face alive with malice.

Had he done that? Yes and he had done so in a vain attempt to rebuild his own.

Later that night as Bae was prepared to leave, as the Lost Ones were prepared to come aboard for another visit and as Killian was once more caught between a rock and a hard place he made another plea to the heavens that someone out there might throw him a bone. Surely even after a lifetime of villainy he was entitled to some sort of a respite.

"I can change" he found it slipping out of his numb lips as his ears bleed with what Bae was accusing him off regardless of the truth.

Bae laughed coldly. "No you cannot" he said with something like pity in his voice. "My sister will be safe far from you, I don't know what you were thinking. You'd have been a terrible father"

And with that he jumped off the side of the boat Felix giving him a twisted grin as he followed and leaving Killian's heart even more ripped and bleeding and mangled than he thought it already was.

Perhaps, he thought later that night his hand on the dragon toy. Perhaps Bae was right. Perhaps he was not meant to be a father after all.

And with that he felt the tears fall silently down his face.

* * *

Neverland. The Present. Killian's Perspective.

He had woken and felt his leg cramp in protest. Giselle had slipped off it and now had her head pillowed on her arm and Killian found it was easy to stand up without her noticing.

He had just finished walking around in order to get the feeling back in his leg when he realised that he was being watched. By Pan.

He edged in front of Giselle slightly not that it would do much good. He was for the most part unarmed but he supposed one shout would get Regina up a fireball in her hand.

There was no way that he could know about Tink would he? Although at this point nothing would surprise him.

And then the bloody demon dropped the one thing on him that he so desperately wanted to hear and was so desperately dreading all at once.

Baelfire was alive.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-As Killian attempts to help David in a mad quest to save Henry (and the idiot Prince) he is confronted by his past and the two end up sharing what could be considered a moment. Meanwhile Emma must confront her feelings for Hook and Neal when a kiss and a trip to the Echo Caves results in confrontation for more than one member of the group including Giselle-who risks the gentle foundations she has built with Killian if her darkest secret becomes known.**

 **And i will update as soon as i can. **

**Let me know what you think. **


	23. Forgiveness And Stuff

**Hi, here is another chapter, please let me know what you think. This deals with the Echo Caves and two surprising secrets of Giselle's. Kudos if you guessed even one of them.**

 **I am open to continuing this story on to Season 6 depending on where the land lies but i am waiting for a renewal on OUAT or cancellation, seeing as how the currant narrative ends at Season 6 i am seriously considering it but that is up to you. If not i have a few more OUAT stories in planning that i can try out, so let me know.**

 **I am working on the belief that the curse was not a curse for everyone in this chapter. That some people did manage to have happy and relatively normal lives.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 23-Forgiveness...And Stuff.

As Killian attempts to help David in a mad quest to save Henry (and the idiot Prince) he is confronted by his past and the two end up sharing what could be considered a moment. Meanwhile Emma must confront her feelings for Hook and Neal when a kiss and a trip to the Echo Caves results in confrontation for more than one member of the group including Giselle-who risks the gentle foundations she has built with Killian if her darkest secret becomes known.

* * *

 ** _'_** ** _It is a wise father that knows his own child'_** **(William Shakespeare)**

Neverland. Killian's Perspective.

The idiot prince (as Killian had taken to calling him) was now seriously only hours near death and still was refusing to tell his loved ones. Personally Killian thought it was more selfish to die without giving his family any warning than it was to die desperate for something that would only fuel (he was beginning to worry) lost hope.

He privately didn't want to admit it but he suspected the boy had turned into a Lost One a long time ago, even Bae he suspected must have been swayed by the appeal of a family after so long being ignored and abandoned which for all intents and purposes was what the Lost One's believed.

But he would be damned if he had to watch David the idiot die in front of him. Regardless of what that would do to whatever his relationship with Emma was he did not think that Giselle would have a problem with it. He doubted that she would approve if he let the idiot die a painful death and things...things were good.

They were talking, which was more than what they were doing two weeks ago when they had first met. She was calling him Killian now as well. It wasn't what he had hoped but it was a start and right now he was taking anything and everything he could get his hands on. No piece of knowledge was too little and he found that simply walking by her side was now becoming easier. Giselle was soon becoming more and more open with him and he was relishing the contact that he was getting. After so many years with nothing it was nice what he was getting.

He made sure however that Giselle didn't know how much more he wanted.

But that lead himself to dealing with the Prince. He was now desperately wasting time in order to give the fucking idiot a chance at something that might resemble a life. Killian carefully didn't think of Liam, did not think of the pain that came when he thought of his older brother, at the thought of how good an Uncle he would have been to his bright eyed niece. This was about another bright eyed child that needed to be saved, and that needed his family in order to do so.

And that meant this fucking idiot. Regardless of how both he and Killian felt about the other.

But...as he watched the ailing idiot make his way uphill in the vain hopes of something that Killian had made up in order to do what had to be done he realised something that would have been quite horrific, had it not been...well...painfully true.

He and David were not so different.

They had both had (from what he could gather) somewhat difficult relationships with their fathers.

They had both lost brothers.

They had both lost their families to darkest of souls (even if his was considerably more attractive)

And they had both regained their families somewhat. Including their children.

And it was that nagging fact that allowed Killian the courage to ask the question he so desperately wanted to ask.

"How do you do it?" he asked carefully as David half collapsed onto a rock breathing heavily.

"Do what?" it was remarkable how a few steps up a rock had tired him out, they were nowhere near where they needed to be and Killian was sure that they weren't going get to it in time, David however was staring at him with exasperation and what looked like annoyance and it was that expression that that forced him to ask what he was so desperately interested in the answer to.

"How do you do this, this thing...your daughter...I mean, you were gone for a long time, and she, she talks to you and spends time with you and hugs you and...How do you get her to not hate you for not being there even though you tried so hard?"

It was a desperate plea for answers, father to father, David was probably the only man that could ever understand a shred of what he had been through and even then Killian didn't hold out much hope.

David however, stared at him for a second and Killian could tell he was really thinking about the answer analysing ever second to see what he had done. Finally when he spoke it was with a hesitant voice that Killian had never heard him use before, even in the face of death the bastard was always confident.

"I don't know, I just...I was just there I suppose, Emma...she was with Snow for a while and when she came back it was like she was willing to try but...but I don't think there's a set of rules you have to follow, Giselle...is a lot more complicated than Emma. I mean you should have seen her in her cursed life, when she was Scarlett Gold..."

"Was she happy?" he asked getting to what seemed to be the crux of the matter.

David shrugged. "I don't think so" he said finally. "Not really, she was kind of a loner, she didn't have friends she was just there in the corner with a book but she smiled a lot more, certainly a lot more than she does now. And..." he trailed off wincing a little.

"There was just him" Killian finished for him numbly. He was right of course, there had just been that damn monster masquerading as a parent for so long. It had been easy for both his daughter in her old life and her cursed one to love him.

"He loves her if that helps, I truly think he does, in both lives" David said finally. "At least she was loved by someone that should be enough"

There was something about the tone in his voice that made Killian think about the hard way Swan carried herself and the way she had turned to stone when any mention of her previous life was mentioned, why she had adapted so well to this island and all the emotional shit that had come with it and why they had got the map so quickly.

"It should be" he conceded finally. "God knows it should be but it's not"

Because it had not been him.

He had not been a father.

And right now he wasn't sure that Giselle wanted another one, maybe all she wanted was a friend.

Could he do that?

The truly sad thing was, was that he already knew the answer.

* * *

Neverland. Emma's Perspective.

Two things had been picking at Emma for the majority of the day.

Firstly there had been the whole capturing the Lost Boy and having Regina ripping out his heart and the whole emotional upheaval that came with it and the second was that...Giselle had seemed totally unbothered by the whole thing, instead she had fixed Emma with that disinterested gaze that was really a foil for something else and had said barely two words to her all day. It was almost like she was calculating something in her head and she wasn't sure what to make of it.

Quite frankly Emma felt on edge by it, but she wasn't sure how to tell Giselle to stop staring at her.

She had gotten her message to Henry and that was the point, the kid now had hope and she now had a little more chance to sleep. Now all she had to do was to figure out how to get home and then she'd be making real progress.

Her Mom she thought bitterly trekking through the undergrowth was wrong. There is nothing you wouldn't do for your child. If ripping out one heart or one hundred turned out to be her one option then she honestly did not care. The bitter part of herself, the part that was still the same lonely lost girl that she had always been (she had to smile at the irony) thought that perhaps if her own mother had had that kind of fire in her instead of being so perfectly perfect then maybe a lot of things could have been avoided but she had to quickly disregard that thought least she say something she would inevitably regret in the face of her Mother's judgement.

It was a rare occasion where she agreed with Regina and she had to agree when it was Henry's life on the line that there was nothing that was outside the scope of what she would do. It was like those video's she watched where mothers would lift cars because there kids were under them or whatnot.

But Henry wasn't the only problem. And that was what she was willing to bet was the reason why Giselle was staring at her with those dark eyes.

Hook.

Oh Hook. If looks had been the only thing (and if she had known him under the cursed life that seemed pretty idealistic right now) then she would have climbed him like a tree. But then there had been the whole villain thing, and she had told herself that at night as a constant reminder that she was better than that. And then there had been Neal and that had just been one headache after another and too many feelings and too much knowing glances shared between her parents.

But she couldn't deny the attraction that was growing like a fire in the bottom of her stomach and she also knew that it wasn't just her. Hell she had known that from the off and it was rather flattering, with Neal it had been all her, or so it had felt like from the beginning and she knew that not to be true when it came to Hook.

And she had to admit it had been...well...a long time...since...well, you got the idea.

Giselle was still staring at her as if trying to figure out an answer to a question she was mulling over. And ok, Emma knew that perhaps leaving Hook attached to a beanstalk was probably a shitty move but she had to put Henry first, Hook and her in that retrospect had a lot in common simply because they had been parents separated through no fault of their own from their children. Building a bridge with Henry had been easier because he had known what Regina was and had fundamentally gone looking for her. Giselle had done nothing because she had believed Gold's lies and had loved Gold, hell probably still did.

At least she had never had that problem when she met her parents. There had never been someone for her like Gold was to Giselle, there had never been another parent in the picture. She knew what it was like to compete with Regina but at least Henry had wanted to know.

The four of them walked through the undergrowth after the message. Giselle had privately allowed them to do it without a word and then they tried to make their way back to camp. Her Mom was still not speaking to her, Regina was still gleeful and Emma found that she didn't care about either one of them. She shot Giselle another look and found that she was staring at her surroundings with an expression of utmost annoyance on her face.

Emma wanted to ask she really did but she wasn't sure if she could broach any topic with Giselle anymore. She knew the girl didn't like Belle for the simple reason that she was in Gold's life and she wondered if that would happen with her if she tried to take a step forward with Hook...or...or if she didn't care.

It was hard to imagine which one was worse really.

And then Hook came crashing into the trees with a rather amazed looking David and told them what seemed like a fabricated story if Giselle's snort was anything to go by that seemed to have them both dodging death six times before lunch and Hook sweeping in as the dashing hero. But...well...who was Emma to complain.

She passed the rum to Giselle (and that was gonna come back to haunt her at some point she was sure) and was more than a little amused when she saw the dark haired teenager drink it without flinching and pass it back to a disapproving Snow White with little to no remorse on her face and then she saw Hook skulk of behind the treeline.

Giselle was watching and she shot Emma a look, one more piercing gaze that nobody but Emma seemed to pick up on. She shot another look to her father and then back to her and her eyes looked her up and down. Then she shrugged as if to say ' _If you must'_ it was a blessing that Emma was willing to bet her car on that Belle had never gotten.

And then she very calmly ignored the smirk on the younger girls face, walked behind the bushes to where Hook was standing looking rather tired and kissed him before she could chicken out.

When she finished and turned away it was with that delighted little flare of joy that someone gets when they know that they have a handsome man on the run.

And then, then it went to shit as usual.

Because fucking Neal.

* * *

Neverland. The Echo Caves. Giselle's Perspective.

If they had been anywhere other than Neverland Giselle might have been worried about the fact that she was determined not to feel anything. But this place had a way of making even the simplest emotions spin out of control and it was annoying how many emotions that she had right now.

Because her brother was still alive.

In hindsight Giselle wasn't surprised. The men in her family had a way of surviving whatever was thrown at them. But she did not envy caves such as the one she was standing in. spilling secrets was not something she did well and if she stood by the entrance far away from everyone else then perhaps the damn magic would simply...forget that she was there.

Ok so it was naïve considering who she had grown up with but sue her it had been a long week.

God what she wouldn't kill for a shower and a grilled cheese right about now.

Hook...no Killian's secret was kinda not a secret. At least not to her. It had been obvious from the get go the man...her father...was falling in love with Emma. He kept shooting looks at her as if he was expecting her to start carving Emma into little pieces.

Ok so she had never liked Belle, but...she had known Emma when she'd been Scarlett, she had liked Emma, the rest of her family she could do without but Emma was the same as her, she was as screwed up and messed up as she was and honestly Emma had found the line between friend and something more and had never tried to blur it like Belle had done, she had never tried to deflect Killian's attention, she had never pushed forwards and...And she had never tried to take the place of a dead woman.

Because that was it wasn't it? Belle had come in after Rosanna had died and it had rankled her more than she was willing to admit. She still didn't like the woman and she probably wouldn't have even if she had come two years later but she had to admit that that was a big possibility.

Absent minded, she fingered the ring that Edmund had given her once when the future seemed bright and alive and a real possibility despite the darkness surrounding her.

 _"_ _Hey Elle, you think someday we'll get married? Defeat the darkness? Because I sure want to...someday...because I think you're magic"_

Poor sod, she thought smiling despite the pain. It hadn't been a real proposal and he had died of plague shortly afterwards, before she had ever given a real answer but it had been the closest she had ever gotten. Being on this island seemed to make all the memories come flooding back.

She forced herself to listen, half a stone path had appeared and Snow White wanted another baby. What was wrong with this place? Was it just her or was that just logic?

Oh. Now David couldn't leave the island. Well that explained what the hell he and Killian were up to yesterday, she didn't envy that row.

She noticed when the conversation lulled that everyone was looking at her leaning against the rock one leg propped against it and her hand playing with the chain around her neck.

"I got nothing" she lied with ease. There were two secrets she could tell that would have meaning and neither one she was ready to tell.

"Gizzy" Killian said and his voice was so soft and understanding that it made her teeth grit together. "Whatever it is darling you can tell us"

Oh shit.

She gave a sigh and looked at him. Well. There was always the lesser of the two evils.

"I met a man in the Enchanted Forest" she said finally pushing herself of the rock and refusing to look at anyone. Thank God Regina had buggered off for this. Giselle so should have gone with her. One less person to hear this and all.

"His name was Edmund and during the year when my father was captured" she levelled a glare at the Charming's who looked slightly uncomfortable.

"I was living alone, because you know, my home was raided and all and..."

She closed her eyes once.

"He asked me to marry him"

Emma choked on a breath of air. Giselle laughed without humour.

"It wasn't a great proposal and there was the curse and all but I probably would have said yes. I was fifteen, girls younger than me had been married"

"What happened to him?" Snow White asked. Anger curdled in her stomach.

"He died of the plague right before the curse hit, many people in the villages did, they wrote to you asking for help but the two of you were two busy cutting wood up and decorating cribs with glass figures to give two shits about the people suffering because of a war nobody but you wanted"

If the words hadn't been the truth Giselle would have laughed at the look on the Charming's face.

"So that's it" she said in a voice that was higher than she expected.

The stone path didn't move.

"I don't think it is" Killian said and Giselle kicked the rock in anger dust flying everywhere.

"Come on" she shouted anger coursing through her. "What more do you people fucking want from me?"

Nobody replied. Hell everyone seemed frozen. The first secret wouldn't do. The second one was and she wasn't sure if she could say it out loud. No wonder people died doing this.

"Giselle" it was Emma again and Giselle turned away from her breathing in sharply.

"Yeah" she said her voice heavy with resignation.

She turned around then breathing once more.

She fixed her eyes on Hook, if she was going to get through this then he was going to have to be Hook for now. He was watching her with a carefully neutral expression. She guessed he might have known the darkest secret she had ever had might have involved him.

Say goodbye to any ground she had with him now she thought.

"I went looking for you" she said finally meeting his expression.

Surprise and then a look came on his face. She had never covered her tracks she supposed, he might have known someone went looking for him.

"When father was imprisoned, I went looking for you, I knew enough, taverns talk and all, I knew there was a pirate involved and so I asked around and heard about a man with a hook with a hand that had lost a baby or so the talk was so I travelled to the port to see if you were there, to see if there was any truth to the rumour"

She took another deep breath.

"The plan was to confront you, to ask if you were my father and then..." another breath. "And then I was going to kill you"

The Charming's all collectively drew breath. Bae in the cage swore, Hook didn't move but his eyes were dark with some kind of pain, Giselle didn't know how to name. Well there was no time like the present to plough on.

"And I got there and I couldn't do it. So I went home." She closed her eyes and then opened them again.

"You...you have to understand I only knew the one story, that you had killed my mother that you had tried and still wanted to kill me and that my father had rescued us all. You have no idea what it was like growing up with that story. I was thankful that someone had rescued me, I was ashamed most of the time of my past and...And I had nightmares where you were the monster at the window. I hated you growing up. I wanted to see you dead."

She shook her head.

"You can imagine how I hated myself for not going through with it. I was a damn fucking coward I suppose. I wasn't like either one of you" she gave a little self-depreciating laugh.

Hook's expression looked carved into stone but she could see the cracks behind the mask.

"You can imagine my shock when it came out, the real story. And the problem is...that despite everything I still love him." There was no need to tell anyone who the 'him' was, they all knew.

"He's my father" she said with a little shrug. "He tucked me in at night, he taught me how to read three different languages and how to make potions and how to respect magic. He hugged me and laughed with me and in his own way loved me. During the curse he was the guy that would proof read my homework and watch shitty TV with me and make me tea when I was down, he was my Dad...and...And you're not and it's just so fucking confusing because...I believe that you'd be a good one. You'd have been a good father to me if we'd been left alone, I can see that. And I'm trying to separate the two stories but it's so hard"

She shook her head.

"I know you keep the crib still. I know you want something from me that I don't know how to give. I don't know how to love or trust people. I didn't feel like I could for a long time so...so my secret is..." and here came the horrible part she supposed but Giselle was so far gone that she didn't care.

She turned to Emma who was staring in shock.

"My secret is, that I wish to god that Henry had never found you" she said simply. Emma looked as if she'd been hit with something heavy. Clearly she had never been told that one before.

"I wish to God that you had never come to Storybrooke and broke the fucking curse. Because I can tie all this shit back to that moment. Because a part of me thinks that it was selfish. Because I was happy, I had a simple happy life and then you came along and pissed all over it. Lots of people did. Your parents lived sucked ok but other people had it good, children woke up one morning with one set of parents and then went home with another confused and hurt and lonely. You saved Henry and your family but he got it wrong. Not all of us were cursed and miserable. Some of us were happy. I was happy. I had a simple life, there was none of this and you took that away from me Emma, you made me remember how I felt and how much I lost and I don't think I can ever forgive you or Henry for that"

She finished breathing hard and turned to see the stone rock finally appear. She laughed though it came out as a sob. Giving a mock bow that would have made the Dark One proud she wiped her face after discovering it was wet and breathed out once.

"Voilà Giselle" she said finally. "Forgiveness and stuff" she turned to a stunned Emma steadfastly ignoring Hook and the way he hadn't moved and nodded. "Your turn" she said and without waiting to hear it she turned on her heal and left them all stunned into silence as she walked out the cave her head held high pretending that she didn't know she had just burned every fucking bridge she'd ever had to the ground.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-As Bae and Gold re-join the group Giselle attempts to deal with the events of the last chapter and her fragile hold on her relationship with Hook, and finds herself debating weather or not she wants to lose it. Meanwhile the group stumble onto a mysterious figure and learn the truth about why Henry was the one that Pan so desperately wants. Penultimate chapter in the Neverland Arc.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	24. The Return

**Hi, so here is another chapter, this is the penultimate chapter to the Neverland arc and is only in Giselle's point of view but don't worry the last one will have some Killian in it.**

 **As i said i am open to the idea of extending this story into Season 6 but only if OUAT is not updated, i don't know what the plan is for Season 7 but if Season 6 is not the end then i will end it at Season 5 where everyone was mostly happy.**

 **This deals with the feelings that Giselle feels towards her brother and her father, she is loyal to Rumple and she's actively avoiding Hook but Hook is already avoiding her-next chapter will deal with what Killian has been feeling since the Echo Cave as well as his relationship with Bae.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 24-The Return

As Bae and Gold re-join the group Giselle attempts to deal with the events of the last chapter and her fragile hold on her relationship with Hook, and finds herself debating whether or not she wants to lose it. Meanwhile the group stumble onto a mysterious figure and learn the truth about why Henry was the one that Pan so desperately wants. Penultimate chapter in the Neverland Arc.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _A woman must not depend upon the protection of a man. But must be taught to protect herself"_** **Susan B. Anthony.**

Neverland. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had been steadily walking through the undergrowth for at least two hours. Her legs were burning and her knees were covered in mud and scrapes with a twig that she had tripped over. She was shaking and shivering with what she knew was a combination of adrenaline and tears but she was refusing to let them fall, she was refusing to slow down and she was refusing to show weakness. She was refusing anything and everything and she was refusing to look back.

All in all she thought she was doing rather well. Bae had been released, he, Emma and Hook had gone in search of some shadow which had ensured the disturbing threesome that had transpired between the three of them was put to bed-at least for the time being, Giselle had been left alone with the Charming's and had spent the entire time they were separated spinning her sword on the flat rock and steadfastly ignoring the looks from Snow White and her Prince the former who was steadfastly ignoring the latter ever since the secret had come out that he could not leave this island.

Giselle personally didn't think that she would mourn him. David was nice but he was...David. Right now with her own life in tatters she was finding it very hard to care about other people. She didn't think that it mattered, her brain was still buzzing with what was going on, with what had just happened, with what she had just confessed and she was loath to admit it but she felt lighter to it.

She had confessed both secrets, she had lightened the burdens that had been consuming her ever since that curse had broken and while she was happy she had done so, happy that she could breathe again and yet...yet she knew she had hurt a lot of people in telling her confession. Again, no wonder people died during that challenge, people refusing to do it as well. She had to admit that she felt good now that it was all out in the open, and Giselle was refusing to feel bad about that. She couldn't.

It helped that she was avoiding Hook like the plague. Each and every one of those bridges that they had slowly built since being on that island had come apart. There was nothing left it seemed and she was back to the old situation where she had one father.

Though she thought grimly, unless he showed himself there was really no point in hoping that her Dark One father would be there. She wanted nothing more to do than to crawl into his arms and tell him to never let her go. Why had she thought that she and Hook could have any normal relationship? This thing was brewing, had been brewing for a long time in her mind.

Gods she was a terrible person.

Was it too much to just have someone that could love her? Her in all her messed up, fucked up glory? Was that so had for people to understand? For her to get?

There was a crashing through the undergrowth and she turned around to see Hook and Bae and Emma spinning around hands flying to their swords. She turned too but she realised perhaps too late that she was standing directly in front of the bush that seemed to be making the most noise, as if someone was coming through the undergrowth.

For one wild second she thought that it was the Lost Ones. And then she remembered to herself that even with Pan's instruction, there was no way that the Lost Boys would ever give away their position or be that loud without boxing them all in, taking away all escape routes.

Whoever this was, it wasn't Pan. No way did he make that much noise. Even Giselle, tired and confused and heartbroken as she was knew that much.

It wasn't Pan. She felt Bae come and stand at her shoulder and noted with simple discomfort that Hook (and yes, he know was known as Hook) for all his promises that he would protect her, that he would love her, regardless of whatever she could have said in that damn cave did not.

He had been avoiding her as much as she had been avoiding him. Perhaps this fact would have hurt much less if she had never entertained the possibility of a relationship with her biological father, if she had never gone on that damn ship...if Emma Swan had never come to Storybrooke.

It all really came back to that didn't it?

But it wasn't a Lost Boy that came through the bushes. It was Regina, hands tucked neatly in her pockets and an expression of distain on her face that registered immediately when she took everyone in. behind her was...her father.

* * *

Giselle stared for a second as she took in the Dark One, alive and well and smiling when he saw her. She had forgotten how much she had missed him, how much she loved him, it was a powerful kind of desperation that she felt, the need to be protected by the one man that had always been there no matter what.

Rumplestilskin had never led her to believe that he was anything other than what he was. He had lied to her sure but she had always known there was a man behind the Dark One, had never had to go looking for it unlike some she thought bitterly for a second thinking of Belle and the never ending envy that seemed to bind the two of them together.

There was a second where she stared at him resisting the urge to check behind her to see what Hook's view of this new development was and then realised that Hook probably didn't care what she thought or did. And then Giselle all but threw herself in her father's arms.

There was a second where she could tell he was surprised. She honestly couldn't blame him, it wasn't like their last meeting which had resulted in a half-hearted farewell coated in frustration. She had never really given her father much credit. He had loved her continuously even knowing she was the child that her mother had had with another man.

It was hard trying to figure out who she was angrier at sometimes. Hook or her other Father. Instead she buried her face in the leather of his jacket that he used to wear in the Enchanted Forest and breathed in the familiar scent. It reminded her of when she had been young and she would be spending the weekend with her father and had a nightmare about...well...Hook and she would crawl into his lap while they sat in front of fire and he would tell her stories about the different lands that he had seen and the amount of magic he could amass over there.

There was a second where she felt him stiffen in either shock or surprise she wasn't sure but then his arms came around her and he all but lifted her off her feet. For a man with a crappy leg the magic in this place was doing its brilliant job of making sure that he was walking naturally with a strength she had never seen before.

"Hello Sweetheart" he said into her hair and she all but melted at the endearment she had been so used to hearing. How had she ever thought that there was a world where her father wasn't in it? How had she ever thought something as stupid as that?

She let go eventually and moved to the side of him so that she could see the people behind her. Regina was looking annoyed, Hook she noticed out of the corner of her eye was steadfastly ignoring her by keeping his head down on the sword he was clutching in his hands and she found for once that the guilt which had been slowly eating her up inside went away for a brief second.

But then she noticed that her brother was looking furious.

And that was when the whole twisted tale came out.

* * *

Now Giselle had known, because she firmly believed that you don't live with someone and not know all or at least most of their secrets? She had known there was some sort of a prophecy out there predicting his death, he was the Dark One, there was always going to be something out there predicting his death.

But Henry?

Really? The cost of this prophecy being fulfilled was Henry's life? Giselle would have rolled her eyes but the anger was taking control of her veins again, she liked Henry she really did, but she could not yet forget the humiliation he had unintentionally made her feel nor could she forget the pressure he had made her feel when he had been pressuring her to find out who her biological parents where. She loved the little nutter, he was fundamentally a good person where Giselle suspected that she was not.

She knew that if it came down to Henry or her father that she was choosing her father, even if it meant ramming a sword into the little rugrat herself. That she noticed seeing the battle lines being drawn was becoming apparent to everyone. She was on one side and they were on the other.

She found Bae's eyes and met the hardened expression with one of her own. This was her half-brother that had never bothered with her much, that died before quite frankly he had ever had the chance to make much of an impact in her life. They were both the product of a mother that had left them both no matter what the circumstances had been and the divide between them was never clearer than it had been right now.

Her father was speaking but she was barely listening. Her eyes had moved over to Emma whose own hard expression was meeting her own. It had been a divide that she knew the saviour had taken note of. That she was choosing to stay on a path that would see her son condemned to death. But anger had fuelled her for this long, anger and fear and since she had set foot on this island both had consumed her in every sense of the word. She couldn't see now without the tinge of red that accompanied her vision and she found it surprisingly both dangerous and comforting at the same time.

She met the blonde woman's eyes with her own and she knew she was transmitting all of those angry feelings across. Emma had magic, she understood the same way Giselle did, the way you did when magic was your enemy and your friend all at once, and that once you chose your side you were sticking to it. It didn't dismiss the relationship that she had...no could have had with Hook but it did set a clear line between the two of them, Saviour and Daughter that should not be crossed.

It was a line, admittedly with very different context that Belle had never seemed to understand that at least for Giselle, it was always there.

They were moving now, she was walking again blindly half mad with rage and fear of what would be found. She shook her dark hair loose and let it flow around her face hiding her expression until she felt someone move into step with her. She didn't need to look up to know it was neither her biological father or her adopted one, that it wasn't Emma with her long blonde hair and harsh expression, she didn't need to look up to know that it was Bae that had stepped into line with her.

She only looked up however when he stopped allowing Regina to sweep past him with a dignified expression that seemed borderline murderous and when they were quite alone on the path.

"That was a declaration" he said under his breath. "You get that? That was you declaring for him, standing next to him even though he was foretold to kill Henry, standing with him. That was a declaration that says if we are forced to go to war with him you won't be on our side. That if worst comes to worst you know that Hook and I will have to defend Emma against you"

The whole little speech had she suspected the wrong effect on her. She suspected that Bae had believed that she was shocked that she had been declaring in what was in their culture an act of war when the time came, that being said he probably wasn't expecting her to start laughing. And it wasn't a laughter full of happiness either.

"Jesus" she said when she was finished. "You don't think I didn't know what that was? Rescuing you resulted in me burning every bridge I ever had not that you seem to care about that much. I am choosing the one person that despite everything will always have my back. I wouldn't expect you to know about the good in him, you buggered off and left"

Bae spluttered.

"I did not abandon him like some sort of injured duckling in the woods. He gave me no choice, I feel through a portal and I rebuilt my life, I don't trust him and if you had a brain in your head you wouldn't either"

Giselle stared at him.

"I don't trust him" she said simply. "I love him and that's your difference right there. I love him and he loves you, this whole thing was about you, protecting your son, creating the dark curse so he could find you and the rest of the shit that came with it while you were living your life. So I don't know what you want from me, I know that when the lines are drawn I am gonna be on the side where I can sleep at night and so are you and if that sets us against each other then there it is, it's not the worse choice I've ever made, the worst was going into that cave and spilling my secrets so I could watch my life burn to the ground so you can rebuild yours"

There was a second where they stared at each other, blame and the harsh reality of their lives between them, they had been forged by hard living and parents that had condemned them to a life that had been hard for the both of them. But there was something that passed between the brother and the sister that seemed to anyone a normal moment but to them it was a monumental moment.

Bae nodded his jaw clenching and Giselle took a step back. They would perhaps be forever divided on the issue of their father, Giselle would always be on his side and Bae would perhaps never be on his. It would be the one thing that she knew would remain once they left this hell hole.

"And yet somehow" Bae said finally "I want to have some time with my baby sister"

She blinked. She was not used to that.

"Don't think I'm gonna make it easy" she warned Bae laughed in response swinging an arm around her shoulder and pulling her to his side. Giselle started at the contact.

"I don't know how to do this" she warned him. Bae nodded. "It's ok" he said finally. "I don't know either"

There was a pause as she spotted Hook in the distance. He was standing there hand on his sword and she realised that he had been waiting in the shadows there for them to come out. He had been too far ahead to hear anything but it was the first time that she had seen him shooting a look at them as they walked together and she was loath to admit that she knew it was the first time he had looked at her since the cave.

His eyes were dark with that unknown emotion and she found herself trying not to stare back.

"Don't worry about him" Bae said gently. "He's not angry at you, trust me"

She turned to stare at him and then back at Hook but her brother's eyes were firmly fixed on her father.

"He hates me" she said finally and she tried to keep her voice steady even though she was pretty sure that it didn't work.

"No" Bae said and his voice was filled with some sort of unknown emotion that she couldn't identify. She remembered what he had told Emma once that he and Hook had, had a history. Maybe one day he would become Killian again she thought once before she stepped into the clearing where Emma was speaking to a young girl whose face she couldn't see.

"No" Bae said again and this time it was more of sigh.

"No he doesn't"

* * *

 **And let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-The last in the Neverland Arc-In which a strangely made up family rush to save Henry, Killian comes to an understanding with his feelings, Giselle and Killian come to an understanding and as a new curse and a terrible price is paid to defeat Pan, Scarlett Gold remembers the first time she met the young Henry and how he disrupted her life.**

 **And i will try and update as soon as he can. **


	25. The Heart Of The Matter

**Hi, so here is another chapter. I apologise for the lateness but I have been busy with exams and therefore I have had to put this on hold for a while. However here is the chapter that concludes the Neverland arc.**

 **I want to pay tribute in this chapter to the wonderful cast of OUAT that will be leaving us in Season 7. While I do look forward to a new season of OUAT I worry how that will happen without the wonderful cast that we have gotten used to seeing everyday. I want to thank, Ginny, Josh, Emile, Jared and Rebecca for their wonderful interpretations of their characters that they have given us. For showing that heroes were flawed, that villains were not all evil, that the Disney Princesses could be powerful and that a kid with enough belief could change the world. I wish each actor a long and happy future.**

 **I want to pay special attention however to Jennifer Morrison who has played the role of Emma Swan for six years-Emma Swan was a special kind of hero for me. She was kickass and vulnerable all at the same time and she came into my life and writing at a time when I really needed her so I wish Jennifer Morrison all the best of luck. I hope OUAT continues to deliver it's great episodes over season 7 with Colin, Lana and Robert staying.**

 **Ok so now that's done-on with the story.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Depending on how the last episode of Season 6 is I will probably leave this story at Season 5 for which I have complete notes for.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 25-The Heart Of The Matter

The last of the Neverland arc-In which a strangely made up family rush to stop Pan and save Henry, Killian comes to an understanding with his feelings. Giselle and Killian come to an understanding and as a new curse and a terrible price is paid to defeat Pan, Scarlett Gold remembers the first time she met young Henry and how he disrupted her life.

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 ** _"_** ** _It doesn't matter who my father was. It matters who I remember he was"_** **(Anne Sexton)**

Neverland. Killian's Perspective.

Whoever came up with saying that the heart of the matter was the most important thing, or whatever the saying was, was clearly an idiot Killian decided, either that or whoever it was did not have children.

Pan's plan was two parts insane and one part brilliant. Killian had only known the lad Henry for a short while and even he could see that convincing him to give up his heart to save something bigger than him was probably the only way to get him to comply. His home was built on magic, his faith was built on magic, and his family had been brought together due to Henry and his faith.

But he could understand as well, Emma's horror and fury at the thought that her son was going to give up his heart to a madman who only wanted to save himself.

But that was not what was dominating his thoughts. Henry was of course a concern. But his concern first and foremost had to be his own daughter who had taken her booted foot and smashed through what he had thought was the fragile coverings of his heart.

Well he had to give her some credit or perhaps himself. It seemed there was more him in her than he had ever thought. She too like him seemed to hold so much resentment towards her father and unlike him, he could understand why. He had done all of what she had accused him off. If he had been half the man that he had claimed to be he would have gone looking for her.

And he had given her nightmares. She had tried to _kill_ him.

That was going to keep him up for a while he knew. He also knew what he would have done had she gone through with her plan to kill him. He would have either listened to her or simply ran her through and the thought made his stomach turn. He shook his head and tried to block out what she would have looked like, fourteen with mud on her boots and that look that had once attracted him to Milah in her eye as she held a knife to his throat.

He could have killed her. The man he was back then he probably would have.

He had given her _nightmares_ , she had seen him as a _monster_.

And more to the point he didn't know how to make it right. How do you plan to put back a lifetime of loss and regret and a dangerously powerful love that so many people could not understand? He had loved his daughter, had lived for her and had grieved for her, all at the same time and now he did not know how to make things better when it seemed like every step they were taking forwards was accompanied by two steps back.

Filled with self-loathing he swallowed the bile in his throat and he tried to focus on the path in front of him so that he could get back to his ship, his ship that guaranteed safety and he hoped an escape route. Emma and Regina along with Bae had all gone looking for Henry, all desperate to save the boy that they all loved, that they all had a stake in. he on the other hand was to go and get the ship ready while Snow and Charming tried to keep the Lost Ones together and the Dark One was attempting to get together some sort of antidote so the Prince could live once they left this infernal place.

Giselle meanwhile had stuck to his side like a barnacle on the bottom of his ship. Killian couldn't blame her, hell he couldn't blame her for being disgusted with him, as far as he was concerned, in terms of fatherly love he was so far down the totem pole it was a miracle he was still being graced with Giselle's presence.

Giselle meanwhile was steadfastly ignoring him. And it hurt, by all the Gods it _hurt_.

"Are you alright?" Tinkerbell asked as she walked through the undergrowth back to the ship.

"No" he said because that was the truth and he wasn't sure that he could tell Tink the entire story, he wasn't sure he could bare telling the story to her. He could barely imagine the story himself.

He would make it up to his daughter that much he knew. He would become a man that she would one day be proud to call her father and he wanted that day to come sooner rather than later. He wasn't sure that he even wanted to talk about it, or even think about it. Perhaps it was better that she went back to Gold, in his cycle of self-loathing he wondered if that was the better option, if he was to take a step back, stop trying to be something he wasn't.

Good God Killian, he thought scathingly his own thoughts dominating every step he took. In what world did you think that you could be a good father?

He got back to his ship and stormed down to his cabin as Tink set about making a blanket fort on the deck for the Lost Boys should they get tired. He slammed into the room that had that damn crib in the centre and then felt his legs give in.

His daughter hated him.

He was on the floor for a long time. And Tink, merciful Tink left him to his misery.

* * *

Neverland. Giselle's Perspective.

It was her father who broached the subject. It was the Dark One who turned to her and watched her with those eyes that had both haunted her and comforted her for so many years in equal measure.

"So" he said as he carefully weighed out enough of the water so that David could get home to Storybrooke in one piece. "You want to tell me what's going on or do I have to guess?"

Again there was no pretence about his tone. She dithered. In truth she didn't want to tell him about Edmund. That part was still too private though she suspected that what with him seeing into the future and all he probably knew all about that particular problem all too well.

So instead she told him all about the year where she had been alone. Well...she omitted a few truths but he got the general gist, at least she could say that. Including the bit where she had tried to kill Hook and the part where she had told him that she hated Emma Swan for breaking the curse even though it had sort of brought back Bae.

He was silent for a long time.

"Well" he said finally. "You are a mess aren't you?"

There was something in his tone that made the walls that Giselle had so carefully built up while on this infernal island came tumbling down. Her father perhaps seeing it opened his one arm that wasn't working on the water and Giselle slipped under it leaning his head against his shoulder.

"I think I want to come home again" she said finally. Her father smirked without mirth or amusement. "I know" he said in a tone of supreme smugness. He had of course she knew foreseen this. She found that it did not bother her as much as it had done before.

This was her Father.

This was where she felt safe.

For better or worse.

And it was that, that forced her to get back to her other's father's ship so that they could leave this shithole, Henry intact and go back to attempting to build their lives.

How the hell she was to do that however Giselle had no idea.

But she knew that getting home in one piece was the first step to rebuilding her shattered life into something worth living.

She knew that it wasn't Henry's fault that he had the Heart of the Truest Believer but she couldn't help but feel irritated. Ever since he had talked about curses to her it seemed her life was on some random downwards spiral that Scarlett Gold couldn't comprehend.

But Giselle Jones could, now.

And she hated it.

* * *

Storybrooke. The First Curse. Scarlett's Perspective

Scarlett Gold had woke up grumpy. Well it wasn't really her fault. How was she supposed to know that Regina was gonna need her to babysit her kid over the summer because apparently she was the only one that she could trust? Or as the other woman put it, the only one that was 'semi-raised right'. How was she supposed to know that she would be called in early on her first day because Regina had apparently decided she needed to get to the office so that she could watch the planting of her new tree in the courtyard herself?

Seriously the woman was obsessed with apples it was unnerving.

She had known Henry of course, you couldn't live in Storybrooke and not know the adopted boy of the Mayors who had cinnamon on his cocoa and had found out just this summer that he was adopted. Scarlett had tried to tell him that she was adopted too and that she had been just fine with never knowing who her biological parents were, that being adopted had never made her question the love she knew her father held for her but the kid was obsessed with finding out who his real Mom was and ignored Scarlett when she pointed out that it was Regina who loved him even if she didn't show it very well.

Instead she kicked on her rattiest pair of leggings and an old royal blue jumper and boots and stomped downstairs looking for her boots. Her father had claimed that those boots would be the end of his other leg if she didn't move them and she found one under the table and one near her bag. He had obviously gone out to open the shop early but she left a note and grabbed her keys. Regina always had something in the fridge and Scarlett knew Henry always like going to Granny's especially after an hour or two climbing that bloody castle thing that she could never imagine staying up in a good storm.

Instead she got to the Mills residence to find Regina already in her car. She scowled at her and Scarlett decided this was probably not the best time to ask Regina if she was getting paid for this time spent with a hyperactive nine year old. Instead she ducked in the door and tried to shake of the phantom feel of Regina's hard eyes digging in her back.

"Hey" she said coming round the corner into the dining room to see Henry sat at one of the hard chairs reading a book.

"Hey" he said back and she noticed he was reading a book of fairy tales. Who the fuck had thought that was a good idea for a nine year old?

"You wanna go out today?" she said already turning Regina's expensive coffee maker on.

"No" Henry said not looking up. "I wanna read this"

Scarlett thought it was strange but in honesty she was more than happy. It looked like it was going to rain, she had an essay to finish and she was tired. So she kicked off her shoes and left Henry reading in the kitchen.

Since when were fairy tales so captivating anyway?

* * *

Neverland. The Jolly Roger.

Somehow they had made it. They had made it back on the ship, Henry had had his heart restored, Bae and her father had hugged it out and they were heading home everyone they could find in toe.

They were _alive._

At this point all Giselle wanted was a shower, a coffee, a grilled cheese and a bed and she was finally able to get that.

Killian had just offered Henry his bed for the night. The Lost Boys would be sleeping on the deck under the watchful eye of Tink and Bae. Emma, Snow White, David and Regina were all taking one of the crew's cabins and her father was taking the other. Giselle supposed she was to sleep with him and Wendy who had wrapped herself in a blanket and had been taken for a cup of tea by Snow White who had seen her shaking and confused look and took pity on her. Gods knows where Hook was planning to sleep if he was.

Instead she moved her feet sluggish to where he was standing on the prow of the ship his eyes watching the wheel. Regina's magic and a combination of Pan's shadow had made the wheel turn itself as it navigated the ship home and while they were off the water and in the air Giselle got the impression that the Captain was nervous about it.

She wanted to say something that could convey her feelings but Giselle had never been a woman that could do something like that. So instead she said the first thing that came to her mind and damned the consequences-like that hadn't been the one thing that had gotten her into this mess of feelings in the first place.

"You would have been enough" she said softly. He turned to stare at her and she realised with a horrible pang that for the first time she could see the resemblance to him and her. She had always tried to claim that she looked like her mother but stood here she realised that she could no longer deny that.

"This..." she looked around the ship. "This would have been enough" she scuffed her boot along the deck.

"I wish...I wish I didn't feel the way I do. I do because I know it's not your fault. I wish things could have been different I do but..." she gave a little shrug.

"Anyhow" she said feeling braver. "Hate me, don't hate me, I just wanted you to know that had things had turned out differently I think I would have been very happy to call you father"

And with that she turned around to walk downstairs to where there was a lumpy mattress and a blanket, a night's sleep and the promise of home.

* * *

Storybrooke. Present Day

They were home. Giselle still couldn't believe it. They were home in Storybrooke and the dingy little town had never looked better. Giselle staggered off and half fell off the damn ship feeling solid ground beneath her feet rather than sand.

She saw her father hug Belle and Bae curled one hand around her waist and pulled them forwards her father's cane in his hand until the four of them were in some sort of messy hug. Hell at this point Giselle would hug Belle simply because that island had been so unimaginable that she could almost find herself being happy to see her father's girlfriend again.

Almost.

She turned then and without warning stepped back. Nobody seemed to notice and she turned around to see Killian standing there in the background steadfastly staring at his boots.

And she did it without warning. She pushed past Emma who didn't look up until she was standing in front of him and then she hugged him.

Well, more like threw herself into his arms but a hug was a hug right?

It took him a second and then his hands were around her one on the small of her back and the other on her shoulders and she realised from the way he gave a small wounded noise that the poor bastard had reconciled himself to the thought of never having this. That she would never want to be touched by him or hugged by him or comforted by him. And she found that she wanted more of these moments like this with him. It wasn't better than her father's hugs, it was just different.

Damn.

All too late she was letting go and collapsing back into her bed. She could barely remember walking back to the house, hell she might have been puffed there because Emma had decided that everyone needed one good night's sleep or at least a shower and a few hours' sleep before they celebrated.

And with that she found herself curled in bed and fast asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

The next day however, everything promptly went to shit.

Blue was dead, the shadow was back and more importantly Pan was back.

In Henry's body.

And he was her grandfather.

She didn't remember hearing that little anecdote and she reminded herself to ask her father what the fuck he thought he was doing but there was no time when he was standing in the middle of the town with his dagger and a look of vicious glee on his face as he took in her grandfather's final moments. Or so it seemed.

There was a second where she stood there watching what seemed like another effortless defeat of another villain by her father. The ultimate one.

The misunderstood one.

And then something changed.

He looked at Bae long and hard, looked at Belle and gave her what seemed like one last offering of love and then he looked at her and winked once. Giselle stared at him, what the hell was he playing at?

There was a pause and then he dove the dagger, his dagger into Pan's back and it was like magic itself seemed to scream as the world was ripped in two. There was a long pause and then he was...gone...

And Giselle knew as her insides churned in anguish and a staggering grief seemed to crash upon her that her mischievous, demonic and yet somehow always loving father was dead.

Belle was screaming her whole body on the floor and Bae looked staggered. Regina had all but lost her footing, this had been her teacher and confidant for a long time and she looked like the rug had been pulled out from under her feet.

Giselle took this in and then realised that her legs couldn't keep her up. Her mind was a whitewash of grief and they went out under her without her even realising. Someone caught her and pressed her to the floor her knees falling under her effortlessly. She shuddered and felt someone press their lips into her hair patting it down as she shivered back the howls of grief and choked on her silent sobs.

It took her disconnected brain a long second to realise that it was Killian who had just seen the death of his long-time rival and had thought of nothing but her.

He was the only parent she had left and the whole idea of that felt disgustingly wrong.

They were talking, the heroes, Emma's blonde hair whipping around her and Giselle found that she hardly cared.

She didn't care that Storybrooke was soon to be disappearing, she didn't care that they were somehow at the town line, and that they were leaving Emma and Henry forever. That her...that Killian had let her go so he could go and say goodbye to what she supposed was the second great love of his life. She didn't feel Henry hug her or Emma look at her. The woman didn't approach her and for that she supposed she should be happy because if she had done Giselle would have probably killed her.

The grief she was feeling was nothing against the anger she felt for this woman and this boy for coming into town and ruining her life time and time again. She doubted she would ever forgive Emma Swan for being the saviour. Ever.

She saw the purple cloud approach and found that Killian was on her other side not moving but not touching her either, as if the grief swirling inside of her was too powerful for him to be near. As if he wasn't sure what to do, as if Giselle had the answers. How the hell was she supposed to have the answers to this?

She didn't let the tears fall though. And when the purple cloud came and the yellow car was gone she only wished that instead of taking them back to the Enchanted Forest the damn thing would kill them all, would kill her instead.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-In which we see what Giselle and Killian got up to in the year that went missing and we see what transpired between the two during their time in New York. Major bonding.**

 **Hope you all enjoy.**


	26. The City Of Lights

**Hi, so here is another chapter, this one is the start of OUAT's wicked arc. Flashbacks over this arc will see the remainder of the missing year.**

 **Again I want to pay tribute to the final episode of Season 6 OUAT. It was everything i'd have wished for and more and with that news I am glad to announce that I am gonna extend this story to Season 6 and then end it there with a happy ending for everyone and no Season 7.**

 **So yes this story will go on from Season 1 to Season 6.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle Jones**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 26-The City Of Lights

In which we see what Giselle and Killian got up to in the year that went missing and we see what transpired between the two during their time in New York. Major bonding.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _The past is never where you think you left it"_** **(Katherine Anne Porter)**

The Enchanted Forest. Killian's Perspective. 

The dust or the purple fog had cleared away and now they were back in their own land, and more importantly back in their own clothes. Alright, so Killian did not change his clothes that often but he could not help but feel somewhat relieved that Giselle's legs were covered.

Her gown was simple. Dark blue and she was wrapped in a dark black cloak that had fur around the edges and on her feet were study brown boots so at least he didn't have to worry about her getting cold on top of everything else.

That was just the physical means. He had no idea that what the swirling intentions and emotions were conjuring up inside his daughter. He wouldn't put anything past Giselle at this point. She was grieving he knew. She was keeping her feelings private but Killian had long ago become the master of grief and he could tell from the way her hand was constantly on her stomach, the way she did not say anything and the way that her eyes were constantly drifting off in a way that Killian knew meant that she wasn't listening to the conversation.

There was a second where he thought about asking her if she was alright but he knew that if she opened her mouth she would scream at him and he was not sure that he wanted to do that. He could not deny if he was asked, if she asked him-that the thought of what he had just seen, the Dark One's death had not been the best thing that he had ever witnessed in his life. He could not tell his grief stricken daughter that her father's death had been hampered only by the fact that he had, had no hand in it. He had dreamt of this moment for so long and now it had actually transpired he was torn between celebrating and mourning alongside his daughter.

But still...he could not deny that he was thrilled, deep down he knew that for once he had the chance to be a father to his daughter without any interference, even though she did not see him as such.

However he knew that for once they had time on their side. She had said as much-that he and the Jolly Roger would have been enough. Gods knew that he would give that up if a normal life ensured that she would see him as a father. Gods knew that she would have been enough despite everything else. Her and Milah. Now it was just Giselle.

They were talking the Charming's about going on to their castle. As if their daughter and grandson did not exist anymore. Snow White was somehow in pup despite not even knowing about it and Regina was regarding everyone with a terrified expression that sent even the most comforting of souls (Snow) steadfastly staring in the other direction.

Giselle had not said a word. She had covered her face away from him and had only stiffened ever so slightly when Killian pointed out that he was not the type to sit back and follow orders, he was going back to doing what he was so good at doing, piracy. And to do that he needed his ship. And a crew. But mostly a ship.

He wanted so desperately to take Giselle with him but experience had told him that there was no way he could force his headstrong daughter to do anything. Hell she was too much like her mother for that to happen and the Gods knew he could never force Milah to do anything.

He found a horse easily.

"Oh so you intend to leave then?" her voice carried across to him and she stalked towards him with her dark hair flying across her shoulders. Gods she was too like her mother when she set her chin to that expression.

"I am not some great King or Lord of a land. I don't pretend to understand what has happened but I don't intend to rest until I know Emma and the boy are alright and safe"

She shot a look to her brother who had decidedly not asked about whether or not she was coming with him or wondering what the hell his only child was doing.

"Oh and I do just stay here and put up with the prattling hypocrisy of heroes?" her voice was controlled and even and it took Killian a second to realise that she was trying to pretend that everything was alright, she was doing what Jones's did best. Trying to pretend that everything was normal even when your heart was breaking. He couldn't ask her if she was alright. He knew from his own experiences that nothing ever came good from poking an angry, heartbroken woman.

He looked down at his boot and then up into her strikingly calm face. Only the paleness of it would have given any newcomer any indication that she was not alright. Her hand was clenched into a fist but that was the only sign of emotion. He would give the Crocodile this-he had taught his daughter very well in the art of controlling emotions.

"You can come with me" he said finally. "I intend to go to the Jolly Roger and then back to a life at sea. Once I ensure that Emma and Henry are safe I don't expect to be back on shore for a long time"

He carefully didn't allow his hope to betray him though he did not doubt that she could see through him.

"Very well" she said finally. "If you want me?"

He could not help but feel that, that was one of the most loaded questions of his life. Hell he could not help but feel that this was one of the most important questions that he was ever going to be asked. Did he want his daughter to come with him, did he want her in his life? Honestly, he thought to himself, how she could even ask him that he did not know.

"I want you more than anything" he said honestly. And he had to say it because he did. Here was the opportunity to get the one thing that he had wanted for so long it had eclipsed wanting anything else. Time with his daughter. Time to be a father.

There was a second where she stared at him and then Killian noticed that she had uncoiled somewhat. He gazed at her and then felt a sickening swoop hit his stomach. His daughter had honestly believed that he didn't want her to go with him. Another wave of dizzying anger hit him making him grip his teeth. If the Dark One had never been dead then he would have run him through where he stood danger, dagger or no dagger.

"Alright then" she said in voice that only quietly betrayed how relieved she was. He nodded once and then she turned to see a horse nudging her. It was a rather good horse and Killian realised that it must have cost a bit even though he wasn't a horse person. But Giselle's whole body uncoiled and her hand came out to pat the horse on the nose her whole face melting with such a tender expression that Killian couldn't help but feel a pang of agony.

Alright, so he had never been a horse person but he could see the Dark One taking his daughter out to pat the horses. It should have been him teaching her how to ride and receiving her smiles in return and her small hand enclosing around one of his two whole ones.

"Friend of yours?" he asked. He had no idea that animals had come over with the curse nor did he have any clue if Giselle had ever owned one but by the gentle look on her face she did and this was it.

"This is Max" she said gently. "I never got a chance to find out what had happened to him once the curse broke. All I knew was that there was a stables but...well...Henry was there all the time and after he told the town about you I didn't want to go and see him"

Max the horse nudged her in the shoulder. It was almost magical to see that there was a saddle on his back already made. But one headache at a time. Once she swung herself in a saddle with an ease that Killian had never had and arranged herself and her dress over the saddle with a certain decorum that he knew must have come with an upper-class upbringing.

"Ok" she said turning around to shoot one last look at Bae who raised a hand in a goodbye. Killian stared at it feeling a sense of profound sadness that came with the knowledge that brother and sister barely communicated. If things had been different then they would have grown up brother and sister on his ship. They would have been close. He knew that once they had settled down and Giselle was over and Milah was stronger they would have gone back to that little cottage and took Bae.

When Milah had found out that he was gone...

Well.

Giselle stared at him for a second and then turned her head pulling at the reigns so that the horse gave a little jump. A second later Killian decided to pull on his own reigns and follow his daughter away from the Charming clan and into the distance.

However he noticed that she was riding in a way that was different to the way he wanted to head and he stopped. Seeing this she stopped to.

"What?" she asked and there was a hint of irritation that was scrawled on her face. Killian stared at her. "I thought" he began "That we were heading to the docks"

Giselle stared at him for a second and her gaze changed ever so slightly to the one that reminded him of when they had first met and where she gazed at him to guess perhaps the measure of how much she had to be afraid of him.

"Oh I suppose" she said finally. "But I wanted to head home first, get my stuff"

"You want to go home to the Dark Castle?" he asked trying to keep the distaste out of his voice. Even if the Castle wasn't magically enchanted and Giselle could just walk through the front door he was willing to bet that a lot of people had the same idea. And the idea made him feel kind of cold.

"No" Giselle said shaking her head and perhaps something of how he was feeling had shown on his face because her expression softened slightly. Although maybe that might have been the wind blowing her hair across her face.

"Home" she said finally.

He stared at her and she rolled her eyes once.

"There was a cottage, I told you about it, you said you'd take anything I was willing to give, well I'm willing to give you this-you wanted to see where I grew up. You're the only person left that I think gives a damn about me"

It took Killian a second to understand what she was telling him. Throat too tight to speak he nodded and turned his horse around so that Giselle could take the lead. He wondered if she understood or if the grief was too strong that nothing was getting past her.

Well. It seemed that they had eternity to figure out where they were gonna go from here.

* * *

New York. Killian's Perspective.

Well he had been in worse situations. Had he? Had he ever been in a situation worse than this?

They had arrived in New York two days ago. He had found his prosthetic and had a plan-he had to get Emma to drink the memory potion and then they could go back to Storybrooke and confront the evil that had once again taken over the town.

Giselle had taken this all in her stride. This was her world and the first thing she had done was walk into a bank and take out the money that Gold had left her. She had complained that she didn't need something called an ID because Gold had set it all up for her in case of an emergency. That being said it had all gone over Killian's head but once they had money they had got a hotel room and according to his daughter that was a start.

Even if she had locked herself in the bathroom and not come out for an hour and then disappeared only to come back with more bags of clothes than he had ever seen and something called 'pizza' and 'coke' that was actually quite enjoyable in small doses.

New York was strange. The entire city seemed to be bathed in light and never shut up even at ungodly hours. He had spent a time looking out the window at all the bright lights and still had never understood how a land without magic such as this one seemed to act like it was running on magic every second of every day. New York-The City of Lights.

A smile came without warning to his lips even as there was a clanging around this prison thing he was in. and he knew he had been in worse.

His daughter. Giselle.

They had come a long way over the last year. Finally he could say that he had some sort of relationship with her. They had spent many months in that cottage she had called home and had only gone in search of the Jolly Roger when that damn bird that the bloody pregnant Snow had sent him kept coming back every morning.

And as it turned out she had quite a mind for robbery. Had it been any other situation other than his bloody ship on his line he would have been very proud.

Who the hell was he kidding, he was proud.

He heard her before he saw her. Giselle had emphatically refused to cancel her appointment with someone who was going to fix her hair claiming that if anyone could get through to Emma it was him.

"I mean" she had said over dinner of something he could at least recognise-soup and bread-"You are the one that's been whining about her for the last year"

He did not whine...

Except yes he had probably done that.

There was a second where he had stood there seeing her for the first time before his...baser instincts took over. Hells from her perspective he could almost imagine what it must be like for her when he kept cropping up. But he had no idea how to use this phone thing and all he had to go on was Giselle's intuitive and the fact that he suspected his daughter had known how someone in this world would react to him and had decided to punish him.

He knew they had made progress. He would not be surprised if she still harboured some sort of a grudge. Despite everything. But hell, he was taking everything with a grain of displeasure if it meant he got some sort of a relationship.

There was the sound of high heels clopping down the corridor and he sat up from the cold hard bench he'd been slumped on to see one of the men in blue escorting his daughter to the cell.

She was wearing blue pants-jeans as they were called and a long sleeved lace shirt in dark purple along with her trusted boots.

"Ok" she said watching him with wry amusement. "You've been sprung"

Killian had no idea what that meant but he took it to mean that he was able to go home. Or back to the hotel at any rate. Giselle was watching him amusement even as he stepped out into the sunlight and cricked his neck to the side.

And it was there that he saw Emma.

"Hey" Giselle said grinning. "You're not the only one that's capable of doing the unexpected"

Yeah. She was so Killian's girl.

It took some convincing-Emma's expression slid to Giselle to Killian and he didn't know what his daughter had told him but he was willing to bet that it had been something bloody good to get her to come down here and listen to their admittedly fiction-sounding story.

But she drank the potion. In the end her eyes widened and she looked to him and then to Giselle. She recognised them. Hell she recognised him. Killian had, had a long year to address his feelings for Swan. He knew what this feeling really was.

But she remembered him.

And that right now was all that mattered.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. Killian's Perspective.

They had ridden for days. Giselle had been mostly silent and Killian wasn't sure if it the grief finally taking over or if it was the demons that she was pretending were not affecting her. She shook her head sometimes as if shaking away the emotions that were clouding her. They didn't speak of the Dark One and they didn't speak of what had transpired in the Echo Cave.

Instead he told her stories about the lands he had gone to and the creatures he had met in the water. He told her about a land he had heard a rumour about that the queen was made of snow and a land where he had disembarked only to find out the king made everything into gold including his women and how he'd lost his crew for three days until they stumbled back looking more than a worse for wear. He told her about the league under the sea though he didn't elaborate. Somethings were just left to the imagination-or the past depending on who you were.

After the first two days she started smiling a bit more. And on the second day she told him quietly that when she was seven she had fallen out of a tree and broken her arm because she had been dared during the village to climb the highest one.

"What happened then?" he asked more at ease when she was talking.

"I didn't go back again. He..." she shook her head against the pain.

"He didn't want me to put myself in danger again so he didn't let me go down to the village again"

"But what of your friends?" he asked finally.

"I didn't have any" she said as if that was the simplest thing in the world.

Killian stared at her for a second and then had to turn away least the anger show on his face.

And that was the last that they had spoken about her childhood. Perhaps there was a line that not even he could cross.

They arrived at what she had called home in about three days. Somehow it was what he had imagined and yet it was somehow different. It was the kind of home that he could see himself living in should something happen to his ship. His fantasies of a family with Milah were changing into what he knew were fantasies of a family with Emma, Giselle and her boy, hell maybe even Bae.

The cottage had a little thatched roof and blocks of wood for the fire. Killian was suddenly associated with the image of Giselle as a little girl stumbling around with a toy sword or some sort of weapon creating all sorts of mischief her eyes alight with glee. The loss of those memories and the cost slammed into him again making him struggle to breathe. Now they were here it was getting more and more difficult to ignore the time that he had lost.

Giselle stared at the door sliding off the horse and staring at it. Killian stared at her for a second and then he realised that this must have been the first time since the curse that she had been back. The last time that she had been here she had just lost her father, had tried to kill him and lost the boy that she had thought she was in love with. All in all he wasn't surprised that she was staring at the door. Hell she was glaring at it and that was what prompted him to open the door for her and offer her the chance to walk in first.

"Shall we darling?" he said gently and she looked at him for a second her eyes shifting and then she walked through her head held high and Gods knows every inch her mother's daughter.

The cottage was small. There was one bed and what looked like a sky loft and there was a mound of what looked like old blankets piled on it. The kitchen and the table was covered in an inch of dust and there was a second where he stared at the little lines on one side of the wall where it was clear that the woman that had raised his daughter had marked her height. Once again he found himself swallowing down the emotions that had boiled again beneath the surface.

"If you just give me a second then I can grab some of my stuff that must still be here and then we can go to whichever port you think the Jolly Roger is at."

That seemed like a good a plan as any. He found he did not want to linger much in the house that had been his daughter's childhood home-to him it felt more like a tomb filled with missed memories but he watched as she threw books and dresses and another pair of boots into the bag.

There was a pause where stared at her and then she picked something up and placed it on the table. For a second he couldn't breathe. For a second he thought he was choking on air and couldn't even see past the haze of memories that was clouding his mind.

Because on the table was the blanket that Giselle had been wrapped in the day that she had been taken.

It was still white, still edged in pink even if was a little dirty and faded. He wanted to reach out and touch it but he couldn't, the memories that were associated with this blanket, the hope and then the hurt and the promise of something that spoke to the future. It had been the symbol of him having two hands, of being a whole person and a father for those glorious few months. Now it was just a reminder of everything he had lost.

And yet the bastard had let her keep it.

He was going to need more Rum to process this.

There was a second where they both stared at each other and Giselle quickly stuffed the blanket out of sight as he avoided looking at her as he tried so desperately to control his feelings. He didn't make an attempt to speak instead he decided to focus his attention on the wall until she was done thinking. His crew was half scattered across the land and they had all the time in the world. He had an opportunity now. What was stopping him taking it?

"If you want" he said trying to find the words that wouldn't spook her. "If you want we can stay here for a while, regain our baring's before we go and look for my ship"

She looked up at him them her wide eyes staring at him. He could see something in her expression that he thought was hope but she was so bloody hard to read he couldn't be sure.

"Can we?" she asked carefully.

"If you'd like to" he said quietly as if she was some sort of scared, lost animal. Giselle shot him another look and then one of those tentative smiles that he had never seen directed at him before etched its way across his face. He felt the knot in his stomach loosen slightly. This was a good start.

This was good start.

To give Giselle her credit, until the first month was over she never let him see her cry.

* * *

New York. Emma's Perspective.

Well in hindsight that could have gone a whole lot worse. Henry had believed her story relatively well. She had told him that Killian was an old friend working on a case and they were of on a break in order to help him. Henry had apparently believed it. It was nice to know that his hopeful exterior had remained even from his old life.

She opened the door to see Hook's grinning face. God even after a year as much as she loathed the idea of admitting it even privately she could not deny that he had only gotten more good looking.

But what caught her attention was the person standing next to Hook. It was Giselle.

"Giselle" she said surprised. Of course with Gold dead Hook was the only parent in that girl's life but she was surprised to see how comfortable they were with each other. Giselle had gone looking for her warning her that she needed to speak to Hook but now knowing who she was it was difficult to comprehend the changes in her.

Hook grinned at his daughter who smirked back. There was a sort of comfortableness with each other that they had never had before. It made her both glad that the two of them had managed to find some small measure of peace and happiness with each other and sad that she hadn't been there to see it.

Giselle smirked at her and then nodded once walking past her into the apartment, in the past year she had become the spitting image Emma thought wryly of her father. "Emma" was all she said and then she grinned. "Henry" and because either Giselle was too smart or Hook had told her-and it was probably the first one. "Your Mom told me about you"

Henry had gone an unnatural shade of red and stood up his foot connecting with the kitchen table so he nearly went flying. Emma resisted the urge to smirk. Giselle was dressed in a pair of ass hugging shorts that were ripped in the side and a ripped black shirt that was artfully torn. She was wearing black boots and her legs were on show and Henry...well Henry was a teenage boy after all. Her long hair fell down her back and it was longer than he had ever seen it.

"Hi" Henry said breathlessly. Emma shot an amused look at Hook who was looking torn between amusements at Henry's so obvious strange behaviour and annoyed that someone was looking at his admittedly attractive daughter.

Giselle smiled at him but there was something in her assured confidence that made her turn to Emma. "Can we go now?" she said. She was aloof in her tone and Emma was suddenly very aware that the last conversation that she and Giselle had, had ended up with the younger girl...no woman...blaming her for coming into her life and ruining it. Apparently feelings still lingered.

"Sure" Emma said not knowing what else to say Giselle nodded and then turned on her heal and walked away and without saying another word Henry practically ran after her.

Emma turned to Hook who had a kind of long suffering look on his face that she knew came with being a parent to a difficult kid that you couldn't help but love. Emma knew that look-intimately.

"And so it begins" was all he said and then with a mock bow he allowed Emma to lead the way out of the apartment, down to the car, back to Storybrooke and more danger than she had faced in the last year-and God knew, because she didn't more heartbreak.

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 **Next Chapter-As Giselle, Killian, Emma and Henry return to Storybrooke to confront the newest villain they try to resettle back into their old lives but there are several obstacles in their way. Meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest Giselle's grief over losing her father begins to show as she and Killian set up camp in her old home.**

 **And let me know what you think. Updates will come soon. **


	27. Ways To Be Wicked

**Hi, so here is another chapter I hope you all enjoy.**

 **I know that the crush Henry has on his aunt is both amusing and disturbing but by the next chapter it will be resolved I promise.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 27-Ways To Be Wicked

As Giselle, Killian, Emma and Henry return to Storybrooke to confront the villain they try to resettle back into their old lives but there are several obstacles in their way. Meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest, Giselle's grief over losing her father begins to show as she and Killian set up camp in her old home.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _But don't look back in anger, don't look back in anger, I heard you say. At least not today"_** **(Oasis, Noel Gallagher)**

On the Road to/and Storybrooke. Emma's Perspective.

The car ride back into town was relatively easy. Killian after several dubious looks at the car had eventually decided to get in after Giselle had pointed raised an eyebrow. Her bag and Killian's had gone in with Emma's stuff and she had slid into the car next to Henry tapping away at a phone that Emma reckoned she must have gotten a hold of when she had figured out how to get access to Gold's bank accounts. She must have had her ID on her when she'd gone through the curse and kept a hold of it.

Smart.

Honestly Emma had never given her enough credit.

There was a pause and Emma forced herself to focus on the road. Henry had taken to shooting Giselle looks every so often but she was engrossed on her phone. The whole thing of her son's first crush would have been amusing had it not been on his father's sister and technically his aunt.

And she was steadfastly ignoring the man sitting next to her who twice she had had to slap his one remaining hand away least his hands poke and prod the wrong thing.

She was more than a little nervous about meeting her parents again but now that she knew the truth she was more than relieved. She wanted that security back though God knew what she would do when she came face to face with Regina again clad with a boy that only called one woman his mother.

If it had been the other way around with her memories...well she had to admit that she would have no idea to cope. At least Henry had known who she was when he had come looking for her all those years...and in reality it was only two when you didn't include the cursed years.

She turned at the nearest road and found herself staring down the long road where at the end of it Storybrooke was to be found. She forced a swallow and closed her eyes once.

"Mom?" Henry asked sitting up but looking through the rear view mirror she could see that Giselle's dark eyes had fixed on her. She tried to work her face into a smile. She suddenly had a very strong sense that one day something would happen to shake her too the very core of her existence and this girl would look at her silently assessing whether or not Emma was worth her trust.

"Let's go" she said in an effort to swallow the bile in her throat and to shake the image in her head. She put the car into gear and sped down the street. She didn't realise until she had driven past the line and past the town sign that she had been holding her breath.

"Home" Giselle said simply. Killian snorted and Emma could understand what he was referring to. Emma knew that Killian called a different place home than his daughter, she could understand that as well because she too had called a different place home for the last year if not the last fifteen depending on how you looked at it.

"Do you have much to do in the summer?" Henry asked curiosity taking over his nerves when it came to Giselle. She watched him with surprise. Either she knew the effect she was having on him or she had just simply grown in confidence in the past year because she crossed her bare legs and shrugged. Emma tried not to roll her eyes when she saw her son gulp.

"Yeah I reckon, we have boats on the harbour and a library and Granny's is a pretty cool place to eat. Also I imagine that since...err...schools out I imagine that there'll be places kids your age can hang out"

"Oh" Henry she noticed with a sort of horrified grin looked disappointed that she had called him a kid. Perhaps he had hoped she would say he could spend time with her.

Oh god this was sickening, her baby's first crush and it happened to be his aunt.

How many mothers could say that?

She noticed with wry amusement that Killian looked just as sickeningly amused as she did.

She parked on Main Street in front of Granny's and she took a moment to appreciate the place that had brought her so much joy and so much pain in equal measures.

"I'll go in and warn the old woman before she has a fit when she sees you" she said slamming the door shut and stalking towards the back entrance of the inn, her dark hair loose over her shoulders and her boots clacking on the pavement.

Emma had to admit, she posed quite the cutting figure.

"Wow" Henry said as soon as she'd walked in. "I think I'm gonna like it here"

"Henry go and get some air for a second" Emma said already feeling a migraine coming on.

Henry taking her at her word stepped out of the car and Emma half slumped down in her seat.

"She's family" Killian said in a sort of horrified tone "You better figure out how to make more of your potion love and the sooner the better, I do not like the idea of having that conversation" he shot her a look.

"With either of them"

Emma considered that and then nodded. "I can handle Henry's teenage antics" she said finally. Killian did not look impressed by her admittedly rather calm way of handling her son unaware or not ogling his aunt.

But that was a problem for another time.

"Can you watch Henry for a bit?" she asked quietly.

Killian turned to watch her for a second and then his disgruntled expression morphed into something more understanding.

"Your parents?" he asked though he didn't phrase it as a question more of a statement.

She nodded once. That she thought, would either be a great meeting or a deeply unpleasant one.

And she sure as shit didn't want Henry there while she tackled this particular mind field.

* * *

Granny's Diner and Hotel. Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective.

Swan had returned in quick succession with both of her parents memories clearly intact.

He had noticed this, he had come back to the diner and Granny had hugged him for fucks sake. Giselle had already been served tea and the promise of the older woman getting the pumpkin spice syrup out later whatever the hell that was.

Henry had gone to bed and the second the door closed and Emma sat down folding her skirt under her extremely toned ass (and how he had missed the sight of that-amongst other things) Giselle had tilted her head to the side her curls loose over one shoulder and asked promptly.

"Am I reading this wrong or does Henry have some incestuous crush on me?"

David promptly spat a mouthful of tea clean across the room and a very pregnant Snow White gasped. Killian scowled. Oh he did not begrudge Henry, he was a harmless lad and he could still remember the time where he had looked at an older woman and wanted more with her. And of course the lad did not have memories that told him Giselle was family.

But really did it have to be his daughter? Was this a sign of things to come? Ugh. Well...at least he had a hook.

"I'll talk to him, if needs be I'll tell him your his father's sister. That should do it though I have no idea what the hell I am going to tell him about his Dad" Emma shook her head. Apparently she had not given Bae much thought. The thought made his stomach churn rather pleasantly.

Giselle rolled her eyes and Killian took her in with a quiet pride that he suspected only a father could feel. She had a stronger confidence about her that she had not had before. Regardless of whatever this new threat was, that was now taking people according to one of the dwarfs that had burst into the conversation. Killian had decided to like this one called Leroy simply because he didn't gawk at Giselle and those short things he decided had to be burned as soon as possible. There was far too much leg on show that what he felt comfortable with.

The conversation ended when Snow White still looking worried claimed that she needed to go to bed her big belly straining over her blue dress. Killian remembered a time when Milah's belly had been that big, he had always placed one hand on it when they had retired to bed in order to both feel their child and in his own way keep it safe. He looked at Giselle out of the corner of his eye. Things were back on track but he could not deny that he had failed at his task of protecting her.

They got to the door, the Charming's, a couple so sickeningly in love with the other that he physically felt his teeth ache turned around or rather...Snow White turned around.

"Hey what are you guys gonna do for the night?" she asked looking at them.

There was a pause and Killian felt Giselle stare at him. One of the biggest bones of contention between the two of them was that he had given the Jolly Roger away in order to find Emma and he could feel the disapproval mixed with the amusement that came with him being speechless.

Gods she was getting so easy to read now. It seemed like the walls she had so carefully built had disappeared over that year that she had spent with him, that year where he had been her only parent.

"I will stay here" he said finally because the old woman upstairs was a notoriously soft touch. "The ship" he improvised. "Needs repairs from the portal jump, it would be unsafe to reside within it's walls."

Snow White seemed to take that at face value but then she turned to Giselle.

"I am going home" was all she said.

There wasn't even a hint of apology in her tone nor had he deep down expected her too. She had become so independent in the last year that he half expected her to go and find and fight this evil on her own-actually considering her genetic code that wouldn't be too surprising.

"You know Belle will probably be their darling" he said softly. She turned to face him her face so beautifully impassive, so deadly and so much like her mother that it was never so clearer than in this moment.

"That house is my home" she said in a cold tone. "It was my home before hers, it will always be my home. I will not be ran out of my home by anyone."

And that it seemed was the end of that subject.

His daughter had somewhere along the lines, changed from the emotionally exhausted girl from the past to a strong, confident woman whose bones were made of iron and her skin of marble. It was just another ache to bare. He had missed so much and even the events that he had been around to witness seemed to be marred by the trust that had been constantly and slowly growing between them.

He was just starting to learn how to become a father when he suspected deep down Giselle did not want one. Or at least not the way he wanted to be one to her.

Instead he nodded dragging his thoughts away from dangerous topics and focusing on the threat that was coming and what the hell Regina Mills was going to do when she saw her son again for the first time in a year and learned that somewhere down the line he had developed a crush on his aunt.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Cottage. Killian's Perspective.

They had been at the cottage for what seemed like a few weeks now. And while he missed the ship he could understand why Giselle had loved growing up here so much. She had told him how the arrangement worked between the Dark One and his maid about how she only went to the big castle on weekend days and for the life of him he could not understand how she considered this normal when he had wanted every single day with her regardless of the when and the where.

The cottage however was small and mostly clean and it was of a suitable shelter for him to start planning what he would do next. He had no intention of spending the rest of eternity on the land. He was sure that such a thing would do his what little was left of his sanity in. but with Giselle walking around like a pale little ghost inches away from crumbling he did not have the heart to ask her what she saw them doing next or even if she had a plan that saw the two of them together in it.

And also he had a horrible feeling that the act of strength was going to come crashing down around them very soon. Giselle was ultimately his daughter, he had kept his emotions inside for years turning pain into revenge and hate in order to keep him going. Even Milah had turned her grief when she thought of the son that she had left behind into an inner strength that he had never understood until he had seen it again in her daughter. Giselle he could see was doing the same thing, and with what he knew from Milah, the feelings would inevitably boil over at some point.

Therefore he was not surprised at all to wake up one night to see Giselle standing outside the little cottage. As he came closer he could see that the shadows had confused him a little and she was in fact sitting making shapes in the dirt with her hand. In fact if he hadn't seen her shoulders shaking ever so slightly and calculated, like all good sailors do the lack of wind then he would have thought she was just awake unable to go to sleep.

But she wasn't. She was crying.

He dithered wondering what to do. The part of him, the father wanted nothing more to do than to sit down next to her pull her close and let her cry it out however that same part of him that knew exactly who she was crying over wanted to leave her too it. He would never be able to pretend that the death of the Dark One would ever be anything other than a celebration for him but he had no idea how he could comfort his daughter. He had no idea how to do this simple task.

It was the first thing he thought standing in the doorway, that a father learnt how to do, comfort and protect his little girl, and suddenly a great wave of sympathy washed over him for Prince Charming, Giselle was young enough to still need comforting but he had Emma Swan, strong, dependable and so closed off that she wouldn't let her father comfort her.

And it was that thought that made him forcibly cross the grass sit down and pull his daughter into his arms without saying anything.

There was a pause as she stiffened ever so slightly and then she seemed to just melt. It was a combination Killian knew only too well a deadly mix of exhaustion, anger and pain that was running through her keeping her awake when all she wanted to do was sleep and force her awake when she actually did go to sleep.

But it was a step in the right direction he thought, her letting him comfort her because for whatever reason, right there and then Giselle was letting a little bit of her walls break down in order for him to slither through.

Hell. He had always said even to himself-especially himself that he would take whatever he could get. And this...this was more than he had ever seen himself getting.

So he stayed and rocked his daughter as she mourned the loss of the other man that she had called father.

* * *

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective. A Week Later.

It took them one week to figure out who this new threat was and Killian was still not sure how Emma and Regina had done it. Personal feelings aside he could not deny that the Evil Queen was one hell of a strong woman. Her son did not remember her, her family was falling apart and her town was under threat...again...and yet she and Emma had figured out from the people turning into monkeys (and wasn't that the most disturbing thing he had ever seen) that the person they were after was none other than the Wicked Witch of the West.

And now he had to tell Giselle.

As usual she was sat in the corner booth of Granny's. Thankfully those short things were not in attendance, she was wearing a plain grey long sleeved shirt with lace at the bottom and a pair of blue jeans with her boots tucked into them, her hair was scraped back into a loose bun on the top of her head and she smiled at him when he came in. It was a genuine smile and he felt his own come and smile back at her easily.

"How is living at Belle's?" he asked finally after she had ordered those pancakes and bacon. He honestly did not care what she had ordered for them he found that he would eat anything that she would place in front of him. Their breakfasts together was the one thing that they did together and therefore he enjoyed it more than anything.

Giselle rolled her eyes.

"She keeps wanting to hug me all the time, it's honestly getting annoying" she said in her own brusque way and Killian had to hide his snort. Principle was one thing he could understand why she was refusing to live anywhere but her home-she was his daughter after all but she was clearly unimpressed with her housemate.

"And she keeps eating all the chocolate" she said as if it was an offence so great Killian ought to run Belle through where she stood the next time he saw her.

"So" Giselle said fixing him with that dark stare that reminded him of Milah so much that he felt his heart ache. There was a pause where he stared at her for a second and then tried to focus on what she was saying.

"Who's the new baddie?" she asked.

"The Wicked Witch of the West" Killian responded. Giselle choked on her tea.

"Oh brilliant" she said her voice dripping with sarcasm. "So all we have to do is look for a green skinned woman in a town where the guy that makes you coffee might have once been the Evil Mouse King from the Nutcracker"

Killian did not understand the last reference but he did manage to grasp the first part of what she was saying.

"No according Regina she's going to be a normal person she just doesn't know who yet"

Giselle snorted once again rubbing a hand over her face looking tired.

"Wonderful" she said finally. "Here we go again"

Killian took a mouthful of his own tea and forcing himself to swallow. The tea used in this realm was different he knew that then one that he sometimes had drank in the Enchanted Forest.

But Giselle was here, in front of him and while there were ways to be wicked as he was in no doubt they would soon learn, but right there and then he found that he did not care because he was having breakfast with his daughter for the first time in sixteen years.

The Wicked Witch could wait.

* * *

 **Hope you all enjoyed this, the next chapter will be up soon.**

 **Next Chapter-As Neal returns he and his sister have a heart to heart that will have devastating and long lasting consequences meanwhile Killian struggles with his heart and feelings when he and Emma find evidence that the Dark One is alive, while in the Enchanted Forest Killian encourages Giselle to seek a life outside of the one she has always known.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	28. Brother And Sister

**Hi, so here is another chapter. This one again focuses on Giselle and Killian but Neal does get a POV for the first and last time. Giselle's issues will continue into the Season 4 arc as well, because we know that the darkness arc begins shortly.**

 **Please read and review.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **And in the wake of what has been happening around the world, I hope everyone stays safe.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 28-Brother and Sister

As Neal returns he and his sister have a heart to heart that will have devastating and long lasting consequences. Meanwhile Killian struggles with his heart and feelings when he and Emma find evidence that the Dark One is alive. No flashback.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Hey brother, do you still believe in one another? Hey sister, do you still believe in love I wonder. Oh if the sky comes falling down, for you, there's nothing in this world I wouldn't do"_** **(Avicii)**

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective.

He had meant to tell her. He had. God he had.

But when he had gone with Emma to what they suspected was the farmhouse being used by the Wicked Witch he had never expected to find that damn wheel.

He knew what that meant.

Emma had turned to face him her face ashen and Killian knew they were in that one solid moment thinking the same thing.

Giselle.

He had meant to tell her that there was a very good chance her father was alive. He wanted to be the one to do it and he knew from the second that Emma had told Belle he would be running against time. Belle would never be able to share the same house with his daughter and not tell her that they suspected that damn croc to be alive.

Looking at the woman nearly sobbing in relief and promising that she would rescue her love and reunite her family over their morning meeting at Granny's, Killian could see what Giselle had meant. Quite cattily he understood her dislike of the woman that she called a 'drippy little do-gooder'.

She was going to ruin everything he thought bitterly over his coffee. If she told Giselle before he got the chance to, she may as well be setting fire to every step forward that his daughter and he had taken during that missing year and he was willing to bet...well...his hook that she knew it too.

Giselle had spent the majority of her days buried in books on the park benches. Killian never tried to interfere with these quiet moments because he suspected that these were the only time his strong daughter would let go of her walls and let the grief take over and he was not going to be the one that would stop Giselle from grieving properly.

He swallowed even as he agreed to spend time with the woman in order to 'protect' her. In truth he knew that if this witch had that dagger (and really how fair was it that she got it when he had spent the better half of a century on a damn island looking for it?) then Belle might be an innocent victim trapped in the crossfire.

He also knew the same could be said for his daughter. If Gold had any weaknesses Killian suspected that it was the two women left in his life as well as his son, and considered Bae was still missing that left just the two women.

He had very politely asked Belle if she could use that phoney thing to let his daughter know that there was danger and could she please return to the shop but as Belle pointed out Giselle was hardly likely to reply to a message from her or even read it. Killian really needed to look at getting one of those contraptions but he was sure that once he did people would be trying to convince him to do all sort of things with many other new-fangled contraptions and he was unsure if he wanted to open those floodgates.

And then there was the constant thought of couldn't the fucking Dark One just stay dead? He had to keep this to himself but he was willing to bet that Emma Swan had thought it at least once since she had found out that he might be alive and he was certainly willing to bet on at least Granny thinking the same.

How did someone like him get captured anyhow? He had tried and failed and this witch had done it in a few seconds. If he wasn't so sure she was evil he would have tracked her down bought her a drink and asked her how she had done it but that was a thought he supposed for another time.

That was when they had heard the back door to the shop open. Belle had nearly upended a book shelf claiming that it was Rumple coming back. Killian personally thought it might be Giselle trying to make as much noise as humanly possible just because she could.

But it surprised both of them when instead the door opened and a man collapsed on the floor.

A man that Killian was intimately familiar with.

Bae.

* * *

Storybrooke Hospital. Neal's Perspective.

He had been stuck in this bed for hours and still his body felt...strange...there was no other word for it.

Of course the bombshell that Emma had just dropped on him did not help in the slightest.

She had always been good at that he thought irritably. And realistically he didn't have a leg to stand on. The only person that could take on Emma and win curse or no curse was Regina and then she would have to plough through the entire Charming clan, not that Neal suspected that she couldn't do it.

That woman could do anything. It was hard not to admire her.

No sooner had Emma left than Hook had appeared looking sheepish. Neal was willing to bet that he knew what that was about. His father was still alive and he was willing to swear on Henry's life that Hook had not told Giselle.

He found that he could not blame the man. He had barely a year with his daughter where they had been a family and he knew his sister well enough to know that she was probably still under whatever influence his own father had kept her under. Whatever fragile ground Hook had made was going to get ruined and Neal found that for the first time in his life his heart genuinely went out to the man.

But green jelly? He was almost making this easy.

A part of Neal wanted to tell Hook to do one. The part of him that still remembered the burning humiliation that came from finding out Hook was the pirate that had seduced his mother, that had gotten her pregnant and that had left her to die. He had never realised until too late that it hadn't been about Emma. Neal was pragmatic at best, he knew that there was no way that he had a chance, maybe before Neverland but Emma had always been her own woman and he had hurt her deeply. They had both been broken little orphans once but now they were grown up.

He couldn't stop the damage inflicted on him but he could damn well stop it happening with his sister. He loved his father as any son would even after all the shit and the double dealing and the dark magic but there was a part of him that knew that his sister, cut mostly from the same cloth that he was would be a walking magnet for darkness. His father didn't know how to stop himself from seeking power and Giselle was a prime example of that even if she didn't see it.

Hook was still stood at the door.

"You can come in" he said. Neal was tired, he was _so_ sick and tired of feeling empty all the time of feeling like this when he saw anyone that reminded him of the less than fun parts of his past. He wanted it behind him.

Hook shuffled around the door and it was almost amusing how nervous he was. Neal forced himself to finish getting dressed no matter how much the bones in his body seemed to ache.

"You need to tell Giselle" he said without preamble. Hook paused.

"I know" he said and it was with a voice of defeat. Neal realised with a pang of sympathy that Hook knew his daughter only too well to know how she would respond to the news that his father was alive.

And he couldn't think of a damn thing to say.

"She might surprise you, you know" he said though he imagined to Hook the words were hollow and false. They sounded it.

"She won't" he said bitterly. "She's too much like your mother"

The part of Neal that was still Bae, the little boy with the coward for a father and an absentee whore for a mother flinched slightly. Then feeling braver than he had done in months he spoke the words that he imagined Hook wanted to hear and that he wanted to say no matter what.

"I didn't mean it, what I said on that ship all those years ago, about Giselle. You...you would have been a good father, you are a good father"

He looked down at his shoe because he knew Hook well enough to know the man would probably need a moment to himself following this revelation.

"Thank You" Hook said after a long moment and Neal decided that was permission enough to look up.

"Do you forgive me? For everything that happened with your mother?" Hook asked still staring out the window and Neal nearly dropped his other shoe in shock and dread. Of course Hook would ask the one question that Neal didn't know how to answer.

"Truthfully no" Neal said. Hook didn't even look that surprised. Bastard.

"But..." and here was the hard part. "I can understand it. Loving someone so much that...that you'd do anything. Leave anything, be anyone" he thought of the way Emma had once smiled at him when they had been discussing Tallahassee and the way her hair used to smell curled around his fingers, the way Henry's smile was so similar to his mothers.

"I can understand it. The man in me can anyway. The boy..." he shook his head remembering those cold nights with no mother to soothe his nightmares. His father to his credit had done his best but...but he had not been his mother.

"The boy doesn't...not yet"

Hook seemed to take that at face value and when he hugged him, Neal found himself closing his eyes and leaning into it.

Hook he knew, would have been a great father to the both of them given half the chance.

But first he had to find his sister.

Then he could ponder on what to do with his future.

* * *

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

She had been sat at the duck pond carefully trying not to catch the attention of Henry who had been walking around with Regina. She felt her heart...well...what was left of it catch as she looked at the pinched, tired expression on the older woman's face. This fake charade Emma had them playing was clearly taking its toll. Not to mention that she thought it was a damn fucking nightmare being lusted after by her teenage nephew.

God it had been so long since she had had a boyfriend. But with Killian and the constant dangers surrounding her she had a horrible feeling she might remain single for a long time.

Fuck.

She'd been doodling in one of her old books when someone stood in front of her. She looked up fully prepared to tell said person to fuck off but she gaped when she saw who it was.

It was Bae.

"Fuck" she said without thinking. Bae raised an eyebrow and then smiled in response. He half pulled her upwards into his arms and Giselle felt her eyes close and her body respond in spite of herself, this was her big brother right here and she supposed if anyone could understand the nagging guilt mixing in with the all still consuming grief it was him.

"Nice to see you too sis" he said smirking. "Sit down, we need to talk"

And then he said the words that blew her world out from under her...again.

 _"_ _He's alive"_

It took her half an hour and several deep breaths in order to understand what that meant. Bae sat down next to her on the bench and breathed with her both of them taking in the knowledge that their father was still alive despite all the evidence to the contrary.

"Did Killian know?" she asked finally. She didn't know why she wanted to know the answer to this. Well...she did know but she didn't want to say it because to say it meant that she had to act on it.

"Yes" Bae said leaning back on his arm. Giselle resisted the urge to groan or swear with great difficulty.

"He was planning to tell you" Bae said finally. He raised his hand when Giselle tried to interrupt. "He was sis and you know it. man would have walked over fire for you had you asked him to...he wanted to tell you as soon as he found out but...well you cannot blame the man for wanting a little bit of time for your only parent"

Giselle scoffed turning so she could stare over the duck pond. Thankfully Regina and Henry had disappeared but she was still struggling to get her emotions under control. Ever since the curse had been broken, both of them she had been struggling with both sleep and emotions. She wanted nothing more to do than to go to sleep and never wake up. She wanted to wake up, if she woke up to a world where none of this had ever happened. To where she was Scarlett Gold and Henry Mills was just that kid talking crap about something that required him to be in therapy.

"I don't care" she said finally. "I don't care about any of it. I just want to wake up and find out that everything has gone back to normal"

Bae tactfully did not ask what that meant.

"Emma intends to leave once this mission is solved" he said finally. "She intends to take Henry and go back to New York. She doesn't even want to give him back his memories. Of Regina...of me..."

Giselle stared at him.

"Regina won't allow that" she said flatly. "Her own mother won't allow that never mind what she'll do. She has no right to make that kind of decision, she threw Henry away like trash the last time. Like our mother did you"

It was a wound intended to sting and judging by the look on Bae's face the wound had met its mark.

"I suppose you think your cleaver?"

"No" Giselle shook her head. "I think I'm pissed off, and tired and alone"

"Well you're not the last one" Bae said finally.

"It doesn't matter if I have people that say they are on my side if I don't think they are on my side. If I don't trust them to be on my side. I know Emma likes me but I wouldn't trust her. I know you like me but between you dying and coming back to life and our different views on our fathers I do not think we will ever see eye to eye. And Killian" she shrugged. "No...He means well I know he does but I am alone in my thoughts"

"You need a therapist" Bae said finally. Giselle turned to look at him.

"I am a Gold just like you. Son and daughter of the Dark One, brother and sister and an inheritance that is filled with darkness and a craving for power that despite everything neither you nor I can shake. Of course I need a therapist. We both do"

Bae laughed slinging one arm around her.

"Ah sister, I have missed your...rather blunt way of handling things"

There was a pause where Giselle just wanted to curl up next to him and fall asleep but the chiming of his phone interrupted him.

"Emma" was all he said and Giselle felt her lips pull back into an amused smile.

"Go on then" she said turning back to the duck pond. "Go run to your ex"

Bae rolled his eyes but his smile was inextricably fond.

"You should see someone you know. When I come back you and I are seriously gonna talk about therapy"

Giselle laughed once without humour.

"Short talk"

Bae pulled her to her feet and pulled her into a hug and it was filled with a fondness that she could not put into words. She supposed that this was what he would have been like had they gotten the chance to grow up together, a big brother protecting his little sister.

"See you when I get back?" she asked.

There was a smile on Bae's face that she could not but name too.

"Sure sis. Sure"

And that was the last time that she saw her brother alive.

* * *

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective.

Bae was dead.

Bae was _dead_.

How was such a thing possible? How could a man like Bae, that sweet, stubborn little boy with Milah's eyes and her spirit be dead?

Another part of her was gone and his heart felt like it was shattering just thinking about it. He had gained a small token of forgiveness which he supposed was some comfort but now he had to go and do the hardest thing possible. He had to go and tell his daughter that her brother was dead.

He knew deep down that Bae had told her about the Dark One and he could only hope she would take leave of the look on his face before she started yelling at him.

He found her standing outside the shop across the road. She had seen them all go in, David and Mary Margaret hugging them and Belle crying, and was still standing outside. He crossed the road and found that her face was blank as slate. His daughter's walls were back up and locked in tight.

"Who died?" she asked and her voice and her hands were completely steady.

He couldn't speak for a second and she turned to face him her dark hair flying over her black short sleeved shirt, black jeans and boots. Gods she had even dressed in black, if that was not the very definition of irony he did not know what was.

He shook his head for another second trying desperately to keep his emotions in check. His daughter did not so much as flinch when she turned to him her face so horribly cold it was unnerving. She was in this moment he realised, truly the Dark One's daughter.

"Who died" she said again her voice so strong and cold. She titled her head and he found that he could not lie to her. Not in this moment.

"Bae died. The Wicked Witch...Zelena, Snow and the Prince's nanny...err...midwife person killed him. He died in Emma's arms. I'm sorry. Gods darling I'm so sorry"

Giselle did not as much as move. She stared at him her dark eyes unflinching.

"Oh" she said finally. "I knew it was him"

She eyed the shop again.

"And Emma?"

Was it his imagination or had her tone gotten even icier?

"Telling Henry"

That caught her attention.

"Is she telling him the truth? Is she telling him who Bae was?"

To the best of Killian's knowledge she wasn't but he really did not want to say it. Instead he decided to focus his attention on her face. It was then that he saw the hate flicker across it before the mask smoothed back into place.

He wanted to prod the emotions but he knew there was no way he could. Prodding Giselle when she was angry or closed off never ended well that much he did know from bitter experience. She nodded once and then turned to him her face stunningly impassive.

"I would like some time alone please" she said finally. It wasn't a request

He wanted to comfort her, he wanted to wrap both arms around her the way father's do for their little girls and tell her that nothing would ever happen to her again but he found that his throat was stuck. He had no idea how the hell he was supposed to comfort someone that trusted nobody. And that was the crux of the matter wasn't it? Giselle was so broken, so damaged, so full of anger at the world that she refused to let her guard down even for a second.

There was nothing he could do and it had never become clearer than it had done in this situation.

"Alright" he said and before he could say anything she had gone. Disappearing down the street and not looking back at the shop or him her head held high and her back perfectly straight. She looked every inch a regal woman, every inch her mother's daughter. Had this been any other situation he thought he might have been amused by it.

But this was not.

He had to say it even in the mist of his grief he was stunned into silence.

And instinct told him that this was not going to be the first time.

The pirate in Killian Jones daughter and the Dark One were about to have an almighty clash.

* * *

 **And there you go. Let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-As Giselle helps the Charmings take on Zelena and she and Emma have a heated clash that draws lines in the sand, in the aftermath of Ariel's return Killian get's a look at how ruthless and cold his daughter can be when it suits her and in the Enchanted Forest Ariel, Giselle and Killian clash over what is right and what is easy. **


	29. The Pirate's Daughter

**Hi, So this turned out to be a longer chapter than I intended and full of teenage angst and anger. I directed a little bit of it towards Emma because while I do love her she was to me unbearable in this arc. Going back to New York when Henry didn't have his memories was one thing but afterwards? Did she think Regina would just allow that to happen?**

 **Anyhow there might be some triggers for some underage gun use in this but nothing major I can promise you that.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing but Giselle is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 29-The Pirate's Daughter

As Giselle helps the Charmings take on Zelena and she and Emma have a heated clash that draws lines in the sand, in the aftermath of Ariel's return Killian get's a look at how ruthless and cold his daughter can be when it suits her and in the Enchanted Forest Ariel, Giselle and Killian clash over what is right and what is easy.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _And yet to every bad there is a worse"_** **(Thomas Hardy)**

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective.

He couldn't believe that today was the day he buried Milah's son.

Whenever he had thought of Bae, when he had been feeling low about himself he had always thought the boy had gotten off Neverland and had carved himself something of a happy ending. To be fair he had, but death had never been something Killian had pictured for the boy that he had once considered his even if it had been only for a brief second. Death had been something he had only considered when it came to his sweet little baby girl who was now as cold and impassive as marble forging herself to become some kind of weapon where nothing could hurt her again.

And now here he was, standing at the gravesite of Milah's boy watching them lower him under the ground for the rest of eternity.

Apparently customs in this realm meant that they had to sprinkle dirt on the grave. Each person that Bae had loved and that had loved him was invited to by Emma. She had personally controlled the arrangements herself and when Snow White had asked Giselle if she would like a say in it his daughter had levelled her and her daughter such an impassive look that it had honestly rivalled anything he had ever seen before.

Giselle had met him at the graveyard. She had not he noticed come with Belle who had spent the morning with Snow White. She had not come with Regina or the band of Merry Men and she had made it clear that she did not want to come with Emma or Henry. Killian knew that Emma had told Henry that Giselle was his father's sister but she had made no effort to engage in anything other than going for long runs in the woods, completely uncaring of danger and then according to Belle spending all day trying to hone her old skills of hand to hand combat.

Well that wasn't worrying was it?

She had dressed well for the occasion. She had left her dark hair loose so that it flowed down her back with the same softness that Milah's had even if the curls were more tamed. She was wearing a dark dress that finished above her knees and had a little white collar and her usual dark boots over stockings of thin black and a small jacket. She had yet to shed tear or show any emotion whatsoever though he did notice with a flicker of amusement her look of distain when Snow White started sobbing loudly.

Killian had gone first, throwing dirt on the smooth wood that now forever housed the boy he had loved. Belle took it off him and then Regina and the Charming's. Emma patted her lad's shoulders and Henry still looked confused poured some dirt on his father's coffin. Emma's hand reached for the spade and then shot back as if burned as she remembered his daughter.

She turned and Killian followed her eye-line. Giselle hadn't so much as flickered when she had seen Emma try and take her turn. But for a split second-and if he hadn't become so good at reading the little things his daughter showed he would not have seen it, a look cracked through the mask.

It was he realised with a pang in his stomach-contempt.

She was staring at Emma for a second with as much contempt as she could muster and then her hands were back on the spade and she was throwing dirt on her brother's body as if it was something she did every day.

Killian perhaps might have been the only one that saw Emma's hands trembling as anything other than grief. Giselle had gazed at her with blame and hate blazing in her eyes, they had matched Bae's, matched her mother's. Killian knew the shade intimately, and he knew what it was to be looked at like that.

He would have talked to his daughter about it but she had closed herself off so much in her grief that he knew it would all fall to shit anyhow. Perhaps the only option he had left was to sit back and watch her hit her rock bottom and then pick her up again. Or...the thing that had kept him up the most at night, maybe he wasn't the one that could fix things. Giselle had, had for the better part of her entire life with another father who knew how she thought better than he did. What was the point of trying when it was becoming abundantly clear that the Dark One was, it seemed in this instance a better parent?

They made their way back to Granny's where the wake was being held and he noticed that the woman had put shots of some sort of liquid that was most definitely not rum onto a tray in order to pass them around. He also noticed Giselle take three of them and find herself a corner table. He shot Granny an apologetic look but he also knew his daughter enough to know that she was too much like her mother to let someone like Granny stop her from doing what she wanted.

He did notice with some kind of mixed pride that she downed one without flinching. That might have been his fault during that year they had been father and daughter with no complications he might have spent at least three months in taverns and teaching his daughter how to down the hard stuff. He slid into the chair opposite her and watched her for a second before deciding to brave speech.

"Not as strong as the stuff in the tavern is it?"

Giselle flashed him a smile, a real one he was relived to notice though it was gone in a second.

"No" she said finally. "But just as mind-numbing" she took the second one and then passed the third to him.

"Your brother" he said gently and Giselle raised it in solidarity. They both drank to Bae and he had just finished wincing because whatever this clear liquid was it was awful when Emma came over.

"Killian" she whispered "Can I borrow you for a minute?"

He turned but the ice mask was back on his daughters face. She was regarding Emma like she would if she was unsure if she was an enemy or not. He nodded because he had been in too many a fight to know leaving two women resenting each other in the same place alone was a bad thing and slid out the booth. Whatever she wanted it was best he kept Giselle out of it. At least for a while.

He was two minutes late for Zelena's appearance he found out later.

Not that that had done anything to curtail the appearance of another person.

Because Ariel was back.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Woods. Giselle's Perspective.

She had gone straight home as soon as Zelena had left.

Giselle had, had no time to ponder on what the 'Saviour' was going to do but she did have time to get in some more practice.

It had been like the curse that had hit Bae and her father had rebounded and had hit her. Giselle didn't have much but she had her father and her brother, both her fathers and this woman was encroaching on them both. She had the Dark One in a cage.

Both she and Belle were in agreement on this one.

That bitch had to die.

Giselle had thrown her dress off in the seconds that she had gone home. It hadn't take long to find her leggings and sports bra. She had taken to running and training to improve her fight to fight combat since they had returned. They had escaped the last curse by sheer seconds she knew since her father had thrown that bean and escaped into the portal just as she had seen what she had thought were purple clouds on the horizon.

She reached for her sports bag and headed out. She was not running today.

While she had been going into the woods quite a bit today was not the day for running.

Today was the day for shooting.

For inside her bag was her gun.

Ok in hindsight she had not planned on getting a gun. But when she had returned to Storybrooke and seen her father's gun in its draw she had decided to take it. God knows she would find more use for it than the bookworm she was living with.

And ok, so maybe she was braking a few laws but they lived in a town that was run on magic and her brother had just been killed by the Wicked Witch of the West so...well...she was the Pirate's and the Dark One's daughter so she supposed that she wouldn't do hard time for trying to protect herself against another cretinously villain.

Right now she walked into the woods fired off the first shot at an old tree she'd been using as target practice and was pleased to see that she could now shoot and actually hit something.

Because right now she was so angry she felt like her skin could be lit on fire. Anger was good however. When she was angry she could pretend that her heart wasn't breaking along with the rest of her.

Because her brother was dead.

Her big brother was dead.

Ok. So she and Bae had not been the closest. They had not been the great supporters in the other's life. There had been too much time gone between them and too much blood, mixed in with too much drama. They had both been divided over their father and their mother and they had both declared for other sides.

But that didn't mean that they hadn't loved each other. They had been brother and sister. And that even Giselle knew was a bond that triumphed all.

And who knows what would have happened given half the chance?

But that had never happened. And she found that she could lay once again, all the blame at a woman her father was falling in love with.

Belle might have been condescending and young and replacing a mother that Giselle had loved fiercely but she had at least had the good sense she was born with to know that there were some things she didn't have to touch or speak about.

She fired another shot and was pleased to see it hit the same spot. Damn she was getting good at this.

Emma had cast that spell, Emma had denied Bae so many things and Emma had still be the one that he had loved until the very bitter end.

And now the woman was...and ok perhaps unknowingly but nobody was that unknowing in her opinion...stringing along Killian.

Bae and Killian were no saints but neither of them deserved to die because everything a saviour touched turned to dust.

If the woman was going back to New York when all of this was over then good riddance. Hell Giselle had not even wanted to go looking for her in the first place.

Maybe it was irrational, being this angry towards someone but Giselle had lived and breathed anger when it came to grief since the day Rosanna had died and she wasn't about to give up a coping mechanism that had worked relatively well in the past just because some people might deem it unhealthy.

Her phone buzzed just as she was about to start running and she stared. It was Belle. That had been another one of her father's brilliant ideas when he had been of his right mind too. Giving Belle her number as an excuse to bond them together and teach her about new technology at the same time.

"Yeah" she might be mad at Emma but that didn't mean living with Belle was easier than it had been before.

But what the woman had to say nearly made her legs give out.

 _Fucking Hell._

* * *

Storybrooke. Sundown. Emma's Perspective.

She didn't realise she had been looking for Giselle until the girl turned up carrying a gym bag and covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and Emma could finally feel the knot in her stomach unclench a little.

The girl had changed out of the clothes from the funeral her hair scrapped into a plat. She looked like something out of a Victoria Secret ad and Emma could not blame some of the teenage lost boys now turned Merry Men for sending her sidelong glances.

Giselle for the most part ignored them and swept past Emma like she was a coat rack.

She had to give the girl credit. She was doing a wonderful job of making Emma feel like she was to blame for all of this.

Things had once upon a time been different between the two of them. When she had been Scarlett Gold Emma had felt something like a kinship with her. Even when she had found out the truth Emma had been the one that she had come too.

Now...now she was standing next to Belle and her head was held high and her face as white as chalk.

She looked every inch the Princess that Emma was supposed to be.

If she hadn't found herself hurt by it she would have been impressed. However nobody knew about walls better than Emma Swan and therefore she knew exactly why and what Giselle was doing.

Zelena and Gold's appearance took the thoughts right out of her head but not before she noticed Giselle's right hand clench around her bag and her left find... _Belle's?_

* * *

Storybrooke. The Next Day. Killian's Perspective.

The second he had heard about the attack he had come straight home.

Well more like when Henry had gotten a text thingy and he had heard what had happened from the dwarves.

Giselle was stirring sugar into her coffee when he came in and sat down opposite her without taking a breath.

"Are you alright, I heard Zelena came looking for a fight. Are you sure that you're alright?" he said it all in one breath and Giselle looked at him with mild amusement which was a damn sight warmer expression that the one she's been wearing over the course of the last few days.

"I am fine" she said finally. "Her fight was with Regina not with me. The only thing I did do was maybe give some hope to my father that Belle and I can co-exist happily"

She shook her head at Killian's expression.

"I may have grabbed her hand when I saw him alive..." she looked away and Killian couldn't tell if she was annoyed by what she had done or pleased that she had done it. Her mood swings however seemed to be slightly easier to deal with however and he did not feel like he was walking through an emotional minefield that he had felt like recently. Maybe now the funeral was over, things were calming down.

Or maybe that was him being a hopeful idiot about to get his heart crushed...again. Who knew? The gods knew that Killian did not have a clue these days.

There was a pause when they were interrupted by Henry who came over looking rather sheepish. While they had talked about his father the day before Giselle had never been mentioned and Killian was unsure how his daughter's temper-so infamous like her mother's-would hold up if the kid spent an hour gaping at her legs tucked away in black skinny jeans and her body hidden in a red jumper.

"Hi" he said shyly. Giselle flashed him a small smile over her coffee cup as if she was unsure of what was coming next. It was difficult to guess what was coming next, or how to have a relationship with this boy when he knew so little and you knew so much.

"Hello" Giselle said back her smile genuine if not tired.

"So...err...My Mom told me that you were really my Dad's sister and that I should apologise for thinking that you were really hot...I mean...don't get me wrong, I think you are but...she thinks it's disturbing and I should apologise and buy you another pumpkin spice latte and not bug you about my Dad"

He said all of this in a rush and Giselle stared at him for a long time leaning back in the booth so she could gaze at him with that impassive gaze. Killian could really not blame the boy for looking like he had been thrown in the Lion's den as meat.

"Ok" Giselle said finally. "But make sure it's skinny"

There was a pause and then Henry ran off to the counter.

Giselle snorted shaking her head and then she looked up as the doorbell rang.

"Fuck" she said suddenly.

He turned half expecting Zelena to come through the door dagger in her hand but instead it was the Charming's and...

"Oh fuck" he said mirroring his daughter.

Because Ariel was back.

He stood up and Giselle followed.

"Hook" Charming said. "This is a friend of ours, Ariel, she's looking for a friend of hers. You might have met him on your travels"

"Prince Eric" Ariel said and he felt his muscles lock instinctively.

"Sorry" said a voice to his left and he felt a hand on his arm. He turned to see Giselle smiling her face so wonderfully impassive it was both brilliant and terrifying. Her hand curled around his wrist and it gave him the strength to force his own smile on her face.

Thank the Gods for his daughter.

* * *

The Jolly Roger. The Missing Year. Killian's Perspective.

So to summarise. Blackbeard had his ship, Smee was still...Smee and Giselle and Ariel the mermaid were now on board. The last two days of traipsing through the undergrowth in order to find his ship had been filled with a combination of both amusement at Ariel's mutterings about walking and annoyance at every turn when she mentioned the fact that now in certain circles he was considered a 'hero'

And that was nearly three good century's worth of pirating down into the ocean for you.

Giselle had not said a word when he had forced the swine Blackbeard onto the plank of the Jolly Roger even when Ariel started to plead with him but Killian was far beyond helping anyone and doing anything that did not include his daughter who was watching him with those inscrutable dark eyes. He turned and shot her a look he would stop if Giselle him too but she was staring at him.

She shrugged once and then nodded her dark eyes glittering in the exact way that Milah's would do when the danger presented to her was so inciting that she couldn't look away. In the half shadow he could almost pretend that his daughter was her.

Ariel made a move forwards breaking of Smee's hands but Giselle's foot had connected with her leg before she could make her way of the plank and she fell in a tumble of red hair and her cloak. Giselle turned to look at him and there was a grin on her face that he could feel returning. This was his daughter, this was Milah's daughter. This was the Pirate's Daughter.

And with that he booted his arch enemy on the small of the back and saw him to a water, if not well deserved grave.

Ariel was screaming and then she was gone shouting at him and Killian knew her words would later bear fruit on his mind when he laid his head to rest that night but he turned to see his daughter watching with a cold, impassive look on her face. She turned her expression to him and then smiled that same dark, sultry smile that Milah would give him when they had just escaped certain death.

"That" she said finally. "Was bloody brilliant"

If he had been anything other than elated at the praise and the knowledge that for once he had done something right in the eyes of his child he might have felt regret for Ariel.

But then again he had been teaching her the ways of being a pirate for nearly three months since they had left the cottage. A little darkness...well it had never hurt anyone in his book.

And anyway, she had lived with the Dark One. Killian knew that a life of goodness that came with Snow White and the Charming family would bore his daughter to tears in seconds.

And...And he was glad to be given this time. All the time. The time that he had had stolen from him.

(But that was before the bird and the vial)

* * *

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

The man was an idiot.

Oh Giselle well...she had a sneaking suspicion where her feelings were going...certainly she liked Hook very much but the man was an idiot.

They were now at the behest of the Charming's (as they had done so, so many times) traipsing through the town in order to help Ariel find her true love. Which was both irritating and rather awkward because Giselle had tripped the woman up in her desire to see Hook throw her lover's kidnapper of the side of the boat.

If that wasn't a perfect excuse to get out of this Giselle didn't know what was but Hook had caved and now they were at Belle's shop.

And to make matters worse, Killian had decided to show Ariel the cloak rather than leaving it where it was, hidden and half in the shadows. She tried not to roll her eyes and give away too much but she knew how this was going to end and therefore couldn't understand why Killian wanted to shoot himself in the foot once more.

"What the hell?" she asked as Belle and Ariel ran ahead to chase up the locator cloak.

"She was desperate" Killian said looking torn and Giselle shook her head grabbing his sleeve so that he was forced to look at him.

"I don't care" she said finally. "I don't care about why you suddenly want to look good for the saviour, I don't care if you want to pretend to be something you're not but I was there too, I pushed her down and I watched you throw Blackbeard over the side of the ship so we could get it back. Now is not the time to pretend otherwise. For the love of God Killian, stop repenting for the things that our in our past"

She stared at him for a second and she tried to impress upon him what she was trying to say though she realised when he started walking again, that it was going to do nothing to change the facts.

Her father was reforming.

 _Bloody Hell._

* * *

The Docks. Two Days Later. Giselle's Perspective.

She had been at the diner brushing snow of her coat when Emma announced that Killian was at the docks with Henry and that Zelena was on her way. There was something else about time travel but Giselle was both too tired and too annoyed to ask more. She had slept very little in the last two days even after the whole Ariel debacle and she found that her nerves were shredded so much so she had started carrying her father's gun around in the pocket of her black winter coat that was thick and fell to her knees.

Even with her blue jeans and her purple ribbed jumper she found that she was still cold but when she had heard the news that her father was in danger again she had all but pushed Emma out the door.

She was tired of losing people. And she couldn't lose another father.

When she arrived she saw the flying monkeys and her father and Henry with their backs up against the wall.

"Oh hell no" she heard David Nolan cry out and for once she could agree with him. Her hands found her gun and she pulled it out aiming straight and she was more than a little pleased to see that it caused one of them to screech flying backwards so that it hit the wall. Regina was throwing fireballs, she and Emma shooting and David stabbing and Snow...well...she wasn't doing anything as far as Giselle's eyes could see.

She fired again and was delighted to see that she caught one in the tail. She had just finished reloading when she saw that Zelena was disappearing. She did not know what had happened until she saw Regina wrap her arms around her son and kiss him. Killian was stood to the side and she found that she wanted to throw herself into his arms.

The last time she had felt something like that, that feeling of such carnal, raw emotion it had been Neverland. She wanted to pretend that she was a little girl again safe from the nightmares in the arms of her father but she was old enough, wise enough and broken enough to know that such a thing was not possible.

Not anymore.

"What the hell?" Emma said bluntly upon seeing her gun. Giselle smirked.

"Did you really think I was going to leave the saving up to you?"

It might have come out more mocking than how she intended but she was still hooked on the adrenaline that came with battle. She took away the bullets and she found that her hands were perfectly steady.

There was a pause where she looked up to find Killian standing in front of her and without warning he pulled her into a hug. She found that her arms went around him willingly and she wanted nothing more to do than to close her eyes and pretend that this made everything better. But she knew with a heartbreaking sense of reality that it wouldn't.

They pulled back just in time to see Robin Hood, who she had seen upon returning to Storybrooke but had never actually spoken too crash into the building. Well...unless you counted that time she and Belle had helped him escape but then again she very rarely did.

He checked on the doorstep perhaps realised that there were more important things and then carried on straight to Regina's side who was clutched Henry to her like he was her lifeline. His memories she realised, were now returned to him. They had won that particular battle at the very least.

Emma was watching them. The Charming's were watching them and Giselle found that she did not like the look of them one bit. They were staring at them as if they were the enemy and she felt her teeth pull back in a smile that was more of a snarl.

She didn't understand most of it. Something about lips and curses and magic and a message that was being sent by bird. Giselle stared at him in both surprise and she had to admit a little bit of amusement. She would wonder why it was more disturbing when she thought of Belle and less when she thought of Emma considering but she didn't have time for that now.

Giselle waited until the Charming's piped in.

"We got a bird with a vial" she said finally. "Whether it was from you or not we got one. Apologises if we thought that a bird was something that..." and here she turned her eyes to Snow White, "Would have come from you"

She did not mean it as a compliment either.

She straightened her back and looked her enemies head on.

That was what she did.

And then suddenly, everything became crystal clear and she could almost laugh at how simple it was becoming. For what she had to do, and what must be done.

And who she was. Who she really was.

* * *

Storybrooke. Outside Granny's. Emma's Perspective.

Emma had been alone when she had gotten the text message from Giselle. Henry now with his memories had wanted to go home with Regina and she found that she could not refuse him. What with Killian and Giselle and Zelena and everything she had to think about.

She shouldered her jacket and went outside. Giselle was stood there standing out on the pavement and staring onto the empty road. The hour was late and it was only then staring at the hard line of this girl...no this woman's back she was amazed at the transformation she had undergone.

Giselle had gone away a girl and come back a woman and if everything Neal, Killian and everyone else had told her the girl's mother was hardly a pushover.

Her dark hair now fell to the small of her back and was curly. She was wearing the same ripped blue jeans and the same purple jumper before but her coat was unbuttoned and her high heel boots that had become synonymous with Giselle were still clacking on the pavement with every tap of the heel.

There was a pause where she stood on the corner next to her and then Giselle turned around. Her face was still that cold impassive mask that it had been when they had buried Neal all but three days ago. There was something about that look. It reminded Emma of the way she used to look when she was a teenager, closed off and her walls up, but Giselle...Giselle seemed to come with her own sense of inner power, this was a girl that had grown up knowing that she was loved by a powerful man no matter what and it had given her an inner strength that most in this town did not have.

There was a pause where they stood there together.

Giselle didn't even look at her when she spoke and her tone was icier than Emma thought she had ever heard coming from her.

"He's in love with you"

Emma decided not to insult her by asking who Giselle was talking about. Instead she decided to let the girl talk because...she wasn't sure what would happen if she stopped Giselle from speaking, she remembered that girl with the gun in her hand shooting with accuracy that screamed of planning and training and the way she had bared her face in a snarl when Emma had, had questions for Hook.

"I know" she said finally because there was the possibility that this conversation might be a strange dream.

"So did Bae"

Emma flinched.

"I know" she said again because that had been a truth she had never been able to ignore.

"I won't kill you" Giselle said finally and Emma flinched without meaning too again. This was without a shadow of a doubt the strangest conversation that she had ever had.

Giselle turned to stare at her and her eyes were dark glittering orbs.

"But this right here, is where I draw the line. This is our line in the sand or whatever so listen up because I'm only gonna say this once. He loves you, Bae loved you and now Bae is dead."

It was heartbreakingly true and yet the blame that Giselle was actively not trying to hide but then again she was not projecting. It was subtle and dangerous and Emma was torn between what felt like a sense of unease and a sense of awe at the control that this for lack of a better word woman was expressing right now.

"So let's get our shit in the open" Giselle said cutting through her thoughts like a knife.

"If you hurt him, if you put him in a situation where he dies in your arms then I'm sticking the sword in you saviour or no saviour. I have lost too much and too much of it has you in the background. So here I am. Making my stand or whatever the hell you call it. Fix this, take Henry and your shit back over the town line, stay here I don't care. But he's my father and when you hurt him I'll hurt you"

She turned then. Never once had she looked anything less than one hundred percent put together.

She turned around half way down the street her dark hair rippling down her shoulders.

"Emma" she called her voice so light it was like this conversation had never happened.

"This conversation never happened"

She was almost out of Emma's earshot when her voice returned to her.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" she yelled.

Giselle stopped and then turned grinning even in the distance.

"I'm the Pirate's Daughter, darling"

And then she was gone into the night as if she had never been there at all.

Emma was loathed to say it, but she had left her stunned into silence.

The Pirate's Daughter indeed.

* * *

 **I will update as soon as I can.**

 **Please let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-As Killian, Giselle, and the rest of the town tackle Zelena, Killian and Emma find themselves in the past, Killian gets a taste of what could have been and Giselle finds it difficult to adjust to having two fathers that she does care about and what that means for her. **


	30. Lost Traveller

**Hi, so here is another chapter and the penultimate chapter of Season 3. I am doing a mass update because soon I will be going on holiday so I want to get all my updates in order.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle Jones.**

 **Not much dialogue in this chapter but a lot of feels so be warned.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 30-Lost Traveller

As Killian, Giselle, and the rest of the town tackle Zelena, Killian and Emma find themselves in the past, Killian gets a taste of what could have been and Giselle finds it difficult to adjust to having two fathers that she does care about and what that means for her.

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 ** _"_** ** _Time moves in one direction, memory in another."_** **(William Gibson)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

There was a pause where she stood there.

She had gotten the text message after she had gone home. It was the next morning and a combination of vindictive anger mixed with a kind of sick glee at what she had done the previous night was beginning to take hold.

She had threatened Emma Swan.

She had put the Saviour in her place.

And she didn't think that it would take long for Emma to run and tell her parents. They were now united and the lines were drawn between the Charming's and her and her father, and she was half expecting some threatening glare coming from a pregnant woman and her husband that she thought cattily that night once Belle had gone to bed-a man that had no backbone.

She had gone to bed after a long bath and a glass of wine and for once she had slept with no regrets.

Which was why she was surprised when she got a text message from David Nolan telling her that his wife had gone into labour and her father and Emma had not been seen since they had left the hospital an hour earlier confronting Zelena. She had been in Granny's looking over the proposed options for her next year of school. School was officially on hold until the next year since a combination of Zelena's return and the missing year had ensured that all school children were repeating the year. However timetables had been drawn up and handed out especially to the older students that were close to graduating. Or at least as close as you could be when curses were flying out of nowhere. She had stared at the message for approximately nine seconds before she had stood up and only started running when she hit the open air.

Suffice to say running in high heeled boots was not as easy as both Emma and Belle made it look.

She made it to the hospital legs aching and her heart pounding just in time to see the Merry Men passed out on the floor, edging her way around them and wishing she had brought more than her father's gun (which was now never leaving her side-at least until this whole crisis was adverted) she loaded as she climbed the stairs.

She nearly skidded when she saw Belle on the floor. The childish fourteen year old that had resented Belle with an intensity that had never gone away grinned at the way she had been so easily overpowered and then she focused on what sounds were coming out of the corridor following. Regina was stood there her arms around Henry and it was only then that she took into account David who was clutching his sword and looking murderous.

"What happened?" she asked and she saw Henry stare at her gun with an open mouth. Giselle could kinda agree with him there. She had tried to keep most of what she had been through since she had found out that her father was now the de facto slave of a lunatic but she feared it was showing somewhat. She could feel that wild, furious feeling that had made her feel like she could take on Emma Swan and win. It was dominating, taking control and ensuring that she was both still feeling dangerous and a furious kind of fear.

"She took my son" Charming stipulated. Giselle stared at him. Not even she was cold hearted enough to wish this on him, having already lost one child to one sister so it seemed. But a baby that they would probably be able to rescue was not the concern here. At least not for her. Right here and now her concern was her father.

She still did not know how to talk about the feelings that she felt surrounding Killian in comparison to her father but she knew one thing well enough-she knew that she needed him in her life regardless of whether or not the other one was there. The life in which there had only been one father had been blown away years ago and she could not stop the emotions swirling inside of her regardless of whether or not she wanted to admit them, even to herself.

Giselle was just about to ask Regina (because she seemed to be the most competent person in this damn place) when she heard the sounds of running feat. She had only enough time to turn around her hair flying with the speed her head turned and then she saw Killian and Emma both of them somewhat wet and both of them looking torn between anger and despair.

Emma immediately moved to speak to her father and she could vaguely hear Henry chiming in though what he had to give to the conversation she was not sure, however she was struggling to hear over the overwhelming sound of roaring in her ears. She shook her head for a second just trying to think past the sick feeling she had encountered but before she could instinct over what had happened or what had just happened, her father confronting Zelena which seemed to be half of what Emma was talking about and she pushed past her and before she could talk herself out of it wrapped both arms around Killian's waist and shoulders and hugged him burying his face into his jacket.

This was only the second time that she had done this and she hadn't known what had possessed her to do this the last time though she imagined now she had a sneaking suspicion why she had hugged him the first time.

She knew right now why she was hugging him. She just had to quash that feeling of betrayal that she felt.

Unfortunately a part of her knew that was a pipe dream until she found and freed her other father not that that was going to be easy if you were considering the fact that Giselle had no fucking clue how to do it and neither did Emma because the saviour she had now gathered had lost all her magic.

A part of her wanted to pull back and sneer, the other part of her wanted to curl into Killian's arms and pretend for five seconds that she didn't have to think about the other father that was somewhere with a baby that would probably be born and be killed in the same day.

She felt Killian's hand come around to curl into her hair and she tried to say all that she was feeling. The hug in reality lasted only seconds but it felt like so much more. She pulled back feeling only slightly embarrassed and she swallowed down both the emotions and the words in her throat that was steadily building.

She decidedly did not look at Killian as the plan was being put in place.

It was clearly decided that Henry was going to stay at the hospital and Archie was going to stay with him, with the newly restored Merry Men standing guard with the exception of Robin Hood who had all put prostrated himself at Regina's feet in his effort to apologise. Giselle did not know much about the Wicked Witch's plan other than it involved time travel and her wishing to be the one that had studied magic under her father rather than her sister, and something about Snow's mother that she really didn't understand.

In truth she wasn't sure how much this would affect her. She had been raised post Regina becoming Evil. If she was being honest she could not see how this would direct affect her, her in this body in this moment, in this town but she knew this bitch had killed her brother and she was not about to let that go unpunished.

"I hoped you would stay with Henry" Emma said when she saw Giselle grab her gun. She was suddenly achingly aware of Killian's eyes on her and she looked to the woman that he had fallen in love with feeling that anger curdle inside her accompanied by the sickening feeling that she often got whenever she thought of reaching out and smacking that smug look of Emma's face, that look that she gave whenever she pretended that she was the better mother, that she was the better woman that had Killian could have in his life, that her brother could have in his life.

Maybe it was unintentional but the way she had acted when she had returned to Storybrooke this time was making her blood boil with frustration and her heart beat and throb with a deadly combination of anger mixed in with grief.

"I am coming with you" she said her voice so perfectly effortlessly cool.

"This is my father, and you do not get a say in this"

Emma blinked.

"I can stop you if I want too" she said her tone heavy with something Giselle realised was her idea of a threat. She was probably going to pay for this at some point later in her life but right now she was too amused and angry to care about that.

"Really?" she asked raising an eyebrow and cocking her head to the side.

"With what?"

Killian was watching them with a confused expression. Emma flushed. Giselle took that as her brief victory.

Right now she wanted both her father's to survive this in one piece. And then she was going to go home and have a long cry and try to figure out how she was going to balance life with two fathers that fundamentally both dreamed of killing the other.

* * *

The Hospital. The Aftermath. Killian's Perspective.

In truth it had hardly been a long battle. Regina had showed up and done a truly impressive bit of magic mixed in with what he knew too be a hell of a lot of personal growth. He liked to think that he was growing in that department as well but he was unsure.

Considering the way that Giselle had all but thrown herself into his arms this morning at the hospital however it was a hope that he was clinging too with everything that he was.

The battle against Zelena had caused him to be thrown about a bit and more to his alarm and dismay his daughter. She had fired of a shot at the woman who had responded by throwing her back in a wave of dark hair and those dark jean things and boots. She snapped back up and while Killian acknowledged for a second how very much like Milah she was acting in this very moment he felt his heart leap into his throat when he saw the dark hair covering her face and the body lying so very still on the floor.

Giselle righted herself with a snarl and Killian caught the Dark One's eye and knew they were both thinking the same thing right at that second and that they were both feeling the same thing right at this moment.

That was _their_ girl.

That was the girl they had both made into the strong woman she was today. Capable and confident and standing up even when the entire odds were stacked against her. He remembered what David Nolan had said when they were in Neverland about Giselle and Emma and their similarities and differences when it came to them. He remembered David Nolan telling him that the Dark One had for better or worse loved his daughter.

And now the worse thing possible was coming true. He was free of Zelena's control and his daughter was running into his arms hugging him tighter he noticed jealously than she had ever hugged him.

He looked down at his hook to hide his emotions and later in the hospital he tried to pretend that he had not just lost the two most important girls in his life-regardless of whether or not they had liked each other at the time.

But that was before.

Before you might ask? Well as Killian was drowning his sorrows on the corner of the docks because...he had no ship, no daughter or no Emma, he would later learn that the Dark One had reverted stunningly back to his old ways.

But that was a story for another time.

Right now all it resembled was a world that had once been his and him and Swan going back in time.

There was not enough rum in the world to quench this madness.

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. The Past. Emma's Perspective.

Ok. She had known Gold was...well...different in this life but...wow he looked like a sparkly lizard. There was really no other description for it. She had patiently put up with the time travel, the trekking though the undergrowth to the Dark One's castle, the truth coming out (and the stuff about Neal had just been a stab to the heart) and the fact that she may have irreversibly turned back time to a place where she was not even a twinkle in someone's eye.

Except Gold. And that was just plain weird.

And of course, Killian had to be with her.

She would address the name change even mentally she decided...later.

She, Gold and the Pirate had been in the main drawing room discussing what to do next, when it happened. Belle had come and gone and Emma knew from the way Giselle's name had never been mentioned that Gold was nervous about bringing her up when her biological father was in the room. She also knew that Killian was looking around the drawing room with a nonchalance that she had to admire as if wondering so desperately whether or not his daughter was going to pop out of the woodwork.

At that exact moment there were footsteps and they turned around as the door opened. Emma felt her breath hitch in her throat as she saw who was stood there. Wearing an old green dress and thick boots (some things never did change), her dark hair loose around her shoulders was Giselle.

She had to be nothing more than thirteen and she looked...so much younger and carefree than she had ever looked before.

Emma turned to Killian who had gone the shade of gone off milk and Gold who was now looking at the ceiling his sparkly, scaly hands together in the perfect picture of innocent.

Forget changing the past. Now they were in real trouble.

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 **And thank you all for your reviews, I will try and update as soon as I can and let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-As we hit the end of Season 3, Killian and Emma fight to find a way home with the help of a special someone. Killian gets unprecedented alone time with his daughter and Giselle in the present makes a decision on the eve of one father's wedding about how her life fits with the other one. **


	31. That's My Girl

**Hi, so here is the final chapter of Season 3. Due to some problems updating I have had to do this a bit differently than I have done before so any problems I apologise.**

 **I am going away so this chapter concludes the updates until I get back.**

 **I wanted this chapter as well as the last one to focus more on Giselle and her father rather than Captain Swan but don't worry we will have some moments coming up for them in Season 4 and while there will be angst I don't foresee as much as the previous chapters until at least halfway in.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle**

 **Please Read and Review**

 **Any issue with spelling and grammar are my own**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 31-That's My Girl

As we hit the end of Season 3, Killian and Emma fight to find a way home with the help of a special someone. Killian gets unprecedented alone time with his daughter and in the present Giselle makes a decision on the eve of one father's wedding about her life fits in with the other one.

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" _ **We all wear masks and the times come when we cannot remove them without removing our own skin"**_ **(Andre Berthiaume)**

The Enchanted Forest. The Past. Killian's Perspective.

For a second, one glorious second she didn't look at him. She did not even cast her eyes in his direction and therefore he took that opportunity to gaze at her. To drink her up in all the innocent glory that she presented. This Giselle, the Giselle of the past was so very different than the Giselle that he knew, the damaged, battle hardened one. He wondered what had happened to make this Giselle look like the one back home but then he realised with a punch to the gut that the reason why his daughter looked so cold all the time was because he was back in her life.

But he could agonise on that later. Right now she was here in front of him, still a child and not the angry woman that had stood upon his ship and demanded answers from him.

She was stunning in every way. Of course he had always been biased in that perspective however but she had been even more stunning when she was not looking at him with that inscrutable mask on her face. This Giselle was a little more open, her hair longer and her hands clasped behind her back. She was wearing a long dress and true to his daughter's form there were scuffed boots on her feet and she was staring at the Dark One's face with a politely interested expression as he introduced them as Miss Swan and Killian, as if he could not even be trusted with a last name.

And if he wanted to get through this without damaging the future he could not tell her who he was. He knew that he would have no choice but to grin and bear this until the bloody end and pray it did not finish him.

"Ah Giselle" the Dark One said in that sweet, sickly voice that made Killian's teeth set on edge he gritted them forcing himself to take a deep breath as his daughter smiled in a way that she had never smiled at him.

"Father" she said simply and then her attention turned. He took note in the fact that while she smiled at Emma there was a slight twist to it that she still had even now, as if she was eying Emma up for any potential threats.

And then she turned to him.

She stared at him with those dark eyes and Killian realised that he, Emma, hell even the Dark One were stood there staring at her waiting to see if something was going to happen. Finally his daughter moved her eyes over him, she slid her expression away back to her father and Killian was left with a yearning in his chest that he could not explain and he could all the same.

He remembered what Regina had said when she had first seen Henry when he had lost his memories of her. He remembered hearing that she had become distraught when she had seen her Henry look right through her. He stood there struggling to get a good hold on his emotions as her attention was diverted to whatever the yarn the Crocodile was spinning.

There was something about a ball?

Oh and Swan in her infinite wisdom upon interrupting her parent's meeting had apparently reversed time so that the book that predicted most major event of their lives or so it seemed was now blank.

"Ball?" it was Giselle, she was watching the Dark One with a rather curious expression that was slowly morphing into the same look Bae often got whenever he had been trying to sneak food on board the ship in order to feed it to that damn stray cat that Smee had adopted and taken to Neverland with them and that his crew seemed to universally adopt.

"Yes dear one the ball that King Midas is throwing-shallow little man" the Dark One said with a theatrical roll of his eyes.

"You two" he said pointing at them. "Are going to have to go in and force Snow White and Charming to...well...do what has to be done to speak crudely"

"And me" Giselle said quickly.

"No" she said cutting across the Dark One's scoff. "You owe me a lifetime for...Belle" she said through gritted teeth. "Besides" she said looking close to annoyance. "Do you not want a night alone with her reading?"

She said 'reading' as if it was a disgusting fate that nobody should suffer. Killian found that he was biting the inside of his cheek in order to keep the smile from escaping and he saw Emma Swan doing the same thing. Something it would seem do not change.

The Dark One stared and then scoffed again. "I should bless my stars that you are not the one in possession of magic my dear one" he said with a wave of his hand.

And that was how Giselle, Killian and Emma were all at the gates of the palace dressed in their finery. His daughter was in a pale green dress embroidered with gold and her hair was loose and twined probably with that golden straw.

"This is fun" she said looking pleased. "I've never to been to one of these things, he must really like you...no..." she held up her hand. "Do not tell me how we come to know each other in the future. Chances are I won't like you"

Oh how very true that was.

He remembered dancing with Emma, remembered thinking that he could have this when she pulled back. "Go..." she said smiling softly. "Go and ask your daughter to dance"

No sooner had he done that then the bloody woman had gone and got herself captured by the Evil Queen who it seemed she was confusing with Regina-the reformed one.

He grabbed Giselle's hand pulling her away from the chaos and did not look back until they made it into the forest. As much as he knew he was falling in love with Swan when it came to her and his daughter in terms of keeping them safe he knew which one would win. Everytime.

Now he was presented with a conundrum, he could take Giselle to a place where he knew that she was safe until the Dark One came looking but he was against that if he was being completely honest with himself he did not want to do that. He wanted to spend time with his daughter when she wasn't looking at him with that cold mask on, when her face was alive with adventure and that savage glee that she had adopted from her mother whenever they had taken a navy ship and somehow laid waste to an impossible fleet.

"Killian" she said as they stopped in the woods to catch their breath the sound of soldiers far behind them and probably bumbling around in the opposite direction. He stopped turning around so that he was facing her. Her hair was loose around her face and she was shivering in what he suspected was both cold and adrenaline. But she was smiling and it was a smile he had never seen before, he had seen Giselle smile once or twice when she was happy with him but he had never seen it this filled with determination or as pure or as happy as it was right now.

"I know we have to go back and save Emma but I just want to say, that was fucking incredible. Best thing that I have ever done in…well ever I suppose, I do not know why because I only got to stay there for one dance but I did enjoy it. It's nice to put a face on the woman my father both loathes and loves in equal measure."

There was a pause where Killian stood there and tried to wrap his brain around what she was just saying.

"You're a strange little thing you know" he said finally.

Giselle shrugged an action that was so familiar that Killian grinned at her.

He looked around, apparently the Dark One was not going to help, bastard and he was now standing in the beginning of what felt like rain and neither he nor Giselle were dressed in clothes that would suit such a storm that was developing without warning.

"Come on" he said finally holding out his hand, remembering then what she had said about not being good at walking for miles in Neverland where the terrain had been dangerous and there had been danger everywhere too. Giselle eyed his open hand (and thank the gods he had decided to go with the prostatic rather than the hook because he was unsure how much she knew about him) and then for a long second he was stood their hand out waiting for her to trust him.

Finally, she curled her hand around his and then he was walking through the woods with his daughter trying to figure out how the hell he was going to cope with rebuilding the present that and rescue Emma and deep down weather or not he wanted to tell his daughter who he was while she was still living with the Dark One what had happened. Perhaps he could tell her, make her understand what had happened and send her to his past. Though he doubted she would have had much patience with his drunken self, the self that he was slightly ashamed off now looking at him.

But he knew that a part of him had been that way in an effort to bury that bone deep loneliness that he had been suffering from, to hide the agony of what Giselle's supposed death had done to him. If she walked onto his ship like she had done the first time they had met he would have dropped everything and anything in order to spend time with her.

The problem was the damage had been done already by the time that Giselle had come around and now that there was a chance for him to get his story across. Therefore, he had a choice, a straight choice-he could tell her and see where that led them or he could go back and take what he got with a smile on his face regardless of how little it was.

It was a lose, lose situation either way. Or so it felt like.

And all the while his Killian knew his stomach was turning knots because he had no clue how to rescue Swan or how he was going to get the Charming's back together, he swallowed back the bile in his throat and pushed forwards decidedly not looking back.

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The Evil Queen's Castle-Giselle's Perspective

She was running, she was running hard following Prince Charming who was struggling with the sword banging against the entire wall or so it seemed. How they had not been caught she did not know but she was running for the second time today and she thought that was two times to many.

There was a pause when she skidded to the window overlooking the courtyard and she took a moment to appreciate what she was seeing. This was the death of Snow White and the triumph of Regina after everything. Giselle wasn't sure if she should be sad or amused.

Killian had wrapped one arm around Emma pulling her close to him and Giselle and she watched them out of the corner of her eye and she saw the way that they were acting towards each other.

She turned just to see the woman with dark hair go up in flames.

There was something about Killian that she couldn't put her finger on. She wanted to hug him and hit him all at the same time and she wasn't sure why, she was not sure what it was about him that made her yearn for his arms around her and yet a part of her wondered…was it possible?

She pondered on this all the way back to their makeshift camp and then she went to sit in the corner with the Marion person while she watched the two of them.

When Snow White reappeared Giselle pretended to be asleep and then she tried to pretend that she wasn't caring that Killian or whoever he really was considering he used the name Charles to get into the ball, was staring at her not sleeping the entire night.

Snow White and Prince Charming went their separate ways in the morning as did the Wolf Girl Ruby. Emma, Killian and Giselle forged their way backwards to the Dark Castle and it was only when she looked at Killian, looked at the back of his head and thought about why she had such an unsettling feeling but yet comforting at the time that something inside her clicked.

There was a pause where she stood there and wished that she had a knife in her hand and then she paused again watching them walk ahead the blonde hair mingling with the brown and the dark curls that were the knocked out Marion something or other. She forced her legs to move least they spot her but a part of her watched her father's easy smile and the love in his eyes when he looked at Emma, the poorly disguised love and a bone deep pain when he looked at her and wondered weather or not now was the time to ask the questions she had been longing for answers too.

There was a pause when she got to the gate. Apparently now her father and Emma were going to the vault to get the last ingredient that they needed to go home. She waited until her father was distracted by Belle who she noted with annoyance seemed to have straw in her hair to walk over to him.

"We will see each other again" she said finally. She tried to convey as much meaning into those words as she could and was rewarded by a small smile that seemed to tremble around the edges but was strong and the same one she realised that she saw when she looked in the looking glass most mornings.

And then she was gone. And by gone she meant her father literally waved her away to her bedroom and into bed with a dreamless sleep spell.

Her last thought before she fell asleep was that she was going to ask her father the truth when she woke up.

When she woke up however, Giselle did not remember Emma or Killian at all.

* * *

Storybrooke. Present Day. Giselle's Perspective.

"Married?" she asked flatly. "Your going to get married?"

And to think that this morning had actually been a good day. Ok so they had woken up to the news-or she had because Killian was nowhere to be found that Zelena had killed herself, there was a time portal in the town and that her father and Belle were getting married.

Was noon to early to drink?

"Yes" her father said as if he had expected this somewhat lacklustre response. "And I would like you to be there, you are my daughter, and we all need to try to get along"

For a start Giselle thought grimly, there was really no fucking way that they did and for a second thought the whole speech he was giving just screaming of Belle's dedicated hand.

There was a pause, Giselle and him were in the shop alone and she leaned back in her chair. Over the course of the last day she had been doing some thinking, hell a lot of thinking, she had thought about the desperate way she had hugged Killian and the thoughts that she had had when she had thought him lost to this life.

It had been painful, and bitter, but she had at last come to terms with it. With her feelings, for better or worse, she had come to the conclusion that she could not live with one without the other…and that there was no need to feel guilty over it.

And that she should probably apologise to Emma.

Ugh.

She swallowed down the bile in her throat and plastered a smile on her face meeting her father eye to eye, face to face.

"Your right" she said finally. "We do need to get along, therefore If I am coming to this wedding and being nice to Belle then you have to be nice to Killian…because for better or worse" she said raising her voice because her father showed every sign of interrupting.

"And it's only fair. The life that we had where it was just the two of us, is gone, and you brought Belle into it first so technically you started this" she shook her head leaning back in her chair and watching her father splutter, the Dark One in him completely floundered by his daughter and Giselle knew that despite, Cora, Regina, her mother and even Belle she was the only woman that had been able to read him so clearly and he knew it as well.

There was a significant pause.

"Fine" her father said finally. "For now."

Giselle grinned at him.

"Good" she said standing up "But really? You had to throw together a surprise wedding in the space of an hour or so? Do you know how long it's gonna take for me to get a decent dress?"

Her father at least had the decency to look somewhat chastised.

* * *

Storybrooke. Present Day. Emma's Perspective

She had just sat down, cocoa and strong scotch in hand and she breathed in a sigh of relief mixed in with the sinking feeling that she, Emma Swan was for the first time in a place she could call a home and with a family. A real family.

And now a thing with Killian. He had traded his ship in for her. He had kissed her and made her stomach feel like she was a home for wayward butterflies. She was in a relationship with Captain Hook-or at least that that was what she thought it was and she found that the idea didn't frighten her or make her anything other than happy.

He had traded his ship in for her.

God it was no wonder that Giselle didn't like her now.

There was a pause as she sat down next to her Mom, Marion was still at the corner of the diner chewing at a piece of toast that Granny had given her along with the cup of tea, Killian was sat at the counter rum in his hand and she noted that his eyes kept straying to the door as if he was expecting his daughter to walk through any second. There was something about the way Giselle had acted in the past that even Emma had never seen in the present. There was an innocence, a happiness that she didn't have hear, or at least not since Emma had known her.

The door opened then and Giselle stepped in, Emma raised an eyebrow at her appearance. Giselle was dressed in a turquoise strappy dress, with thick straps and the skirt was feathers and she had thrown a black jacket over the top. Emma had gotten used to seeing the girl in black since the missing year, and her hair was curled down her back strands tucked behind them with clips and she had matching turquoise earrings. For once she was wearing high heals instead of boots and there was something about her…there was something about her that was different. She looked, more at peace than Emma had ever seen her and that was under the curse as well.

She leaned next to Killian over the counter and she was smiling, curiosity beating her instinct of staying away from Giselle after the tongue lashing she had previously been given. However, she stared at Emma with those eyes that now seemed even lighter than the last time that she had seen them glaring at her glittering with malice and a dark danger.

"You look nice" she ventured. Giselle shrugged reaching out for Killian's rum glass.

"He just married Belle" she said flatly. Emma caught Killian's eye. They all knew who 'He' was but she couldn't help the surprise that flooded through her at the news. She remembered that Belle and Giselle did not really like each other.

"Are you ok?" she asked finally.

Giselle shrugged draining Killian's rum in one fell swoop.

"It beats him being a slave for the rest of eternity" she said finally and then her hand spun the glass around in one circle.

"Listen" she said finally looking at her father who was staring at her. "I'm gonna hang around here for a bit until the two of them are done packing for this honeymoon that she's plucked out of thin air and then I'm gonna go home and sleep for a week. God I missed my own bed, but…" she looked up at Killian then.

"Can you walk home with me when your done? I want to talk to you"

Regina chose that moment to walk in with Robin and little Roland and Emma chose that moment to divert her eyes least Giselle pick up on the blush on her cheeks and the way that Killian was looking like right now he had the world in one room.

And that naturally was when it all fell to shit. Again.

* * *

.Storybrooke. Present Day. Killian's Perspective

He had walked Giselle home after Regina had stalked off her head held high and her heart breaking. He had told Giselle on the way what had happened during their trip to the past and Marion and he had told her that he had told Emma about the ship.

"So you're with her now?" Giselle had asked tilting her head to the side.

"Yes" he said taking the chance to go on truth. Gold had never done that with his daughter and Killian was not going to make that mistake. Whatever she wanted to hear, she would get the answer too.

Giselle stopped then her hands in her pockets turning to face him so they were alone on the empty street in the night.

"I did some thinking" she said finally.

"I realised that…that at some point over the course of the last year I forgave you. I forgave you for things that weren't your fault but I felt like I had to forgive you for them anyhow. And I didn't think I could, and then…I dunno I woke up and I could. I know it doesn't make sense but I spoke to Father and he's gonna try and keep the crap between the two of you to a lower level anyway so can you try and do the same? Because right now I think I can have a relationship with you…as my Dad"

She said this with wide eyes and with a very fast tone but Killian couldn't think past what she was saying, the gift she was giving him. Giselle was giving him a chance and he was going to take it.

He had a chance to be a father, she was giving him one.

"Alright" he said finally.

Giselle hugged him then and Killian pressed a hand into her hair the other one curling around her back to press her closer.

"That's my girl" he whispered under his breath and when Giselle pulled back he noticed her mask of cool detachment was gone.

He was being given a chance with the two women in his life that he wanted to try a relationship with and he would not fail.

Regardless of what was might be coming he had a chance to be a father.

And Killian Jones would not fail at this task.

Somehow it seemed like a little bit, a faint little bit of his paradise that he had gleaned from those golden days with Milah and his baby was being regained.

Right now, he had everything to fight for.

And fight Killian Jones could. And fight he would.

* * *

 **And here is it, this was a nightmare to conclude so I hope you all enjoy.**

 **Next Chapter-As we head into Season 4 Killian and Emma take a step forward. Giselle and Killian adjust to the new normal, there are two presences in Storybrooke and Giselle finds out a secret her father has been keeping from Belle.**


	32. Ice

**Hi, so here is another chapter and the first chapter of Season 4!**

 **Firstly I apologise for the lateness of this chapter, I recently came back from holiday and then had to struggle with getting and building a new computer. Also I am moving out so I had to prepare for that.**

 **So here is the first chapter of Season 4, I know some of you were worried about Giselle not coping with her emotions when it comes to Bae and her Mom and please don't worry that will be addressed later on in this season, the last block of chapters for Season 3 were all about her accepting Killian as her biological father which she has done.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 32-Ice

As we head into Season 4, Killian and Emma take a step forward in their relationship. Giselle and Killian adjust to the new normal and there are two new presences in Storybrooke. Meanwhile Giselle finds out a secret her father has been keeping from his new wife and decides to take a leaf out of his book and watch rather than react.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _He who controls others may be powerful but he who has m_** ** _astered himself is mightier still"_** **(Philosopher Lao Tzu)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

If Giselle was surprised by the news that there was once again another crisis in Storybrooke then she would have kicked herself. Storybrooke was a town that fed on crisis and villains and heroes more so than any other place in all off the realms and worlds so when Emma Swan came bursting through the door after rumours of a snowman in the woods were anything to go by looking for her father Giselle simply turned the page of her magazine with a board expression and wondered if Emma ever bothered to check her phone before she leaped to any conclusions.

"He's on his honeymoon, he'll be back by the end of the week" she said as the shop door chimed open and the entire Charming Clan and her other Dad came in the latter looking annoyed and more than a little sheepish. She knew he was still feeling guilt about his involvement in the whole bringing Robin's wife back from the past debacle that had ensured any fragile progress Regina and Emma had made destroyed in terms of a friendship.

"Typical" Snow White had muttered not bothering to keep her voice down. Giselle levelled her a look from where she was sat at the counter and Emma nudged her mother, whatever she and her Dad were doing in terms of their relationship Emma was sure making it a lot easier for Giselle to come to terms with it than Belle ever did, if Belle had ever thought there was a problem that was. Emma turned to Giselle her hair flying over her shoulder in a kind of effortless way that Giselle wished her own hair would do.

"I need you to text him and ask him if he knows anything about someone who can control ice and snow"

Giselle looked at her then. There was something about that, it felt familiar somehow, a powered individual with powerful magic and someone out there ready to help her fight her battles. What had it been…she couldn't remember and yet she could all at the same time, probably another damn memory spell.

Something about sisters?

"I can text him" she said grudgingly because she could there was no doubting that and anyway Emma wouldn't leave her alone until she did and also a part of her really did want to put a damper on whatever it was that those two were doing in this big house that Belle had somehow found on the cheap.

That night she tied her hair back and pulled on her boots that were still holding together despite everything and headed to Granny's. Emma and Killian were sat in the corner chatting together and trying not to make it too obvious they were still locked in their own world by attempting to look at Henry from time to time who had his head stuck in that damn storybook. Giselle slid into a seat next to them leaning her head against the booth and taking the soda Emma passed her smiling.

It was hard to believe that she was comfortable with this when it seemed only weeks ago the idea of having dinner with Killian…no with her Dad sent her head spinning. Since their conversation they had slipped into a relationship that had become instantly almost natural which she supposed it was. She had yet to call him Dad to his face but she had to admit that even now when she was saying it in her head she felt a part of her relax at the thought.

Instead she decided to focus on the tiredness and the warmth of Granny's and the friendly chat that went when it was her father, her, Emma and Henry.

And it seemed like this whole ice monster crap didn't really matter.

Yeah, because Giselle was really that lucky, wasn't she?

* * *

Storybrooke. The Next Day. In the Ice Cave. Emma's Perspective.

So here she was frozen in time or so it seemed. Even freezing to death with the character from the movie that had every girl in Storybrooke High, Middle and Elementary school and more than a few boys obsessing over she still managed to find a way to be poetic about impending death. Had she still been new to this whole saviour thing then she might have been annoyed but by now she was honestly too cold to give a damn, it seemed like the icy surfaces and the shivers that came with the harsh winds were increasing with each day.

That and she was exhausted. She found that she was sleeping better now for some unknown reason, she was sleeping deeper and easier and she was also sleeping in and going to bed earlier. The whole thing would have been worrying had she not felt…better…like her old self in a way when she had been in New York believing that a life like that was normal.

She really did not want to get into what was making her feel like that because she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew what it was and the last time she had felt like this…well…she had loved Neal, a part of her always would but the last time Emma Swan had fallen head over heals she had been burned pretty bad.

But enough of that, because now she was half frozen in an ice cave with an unstable Disney character who could not control her powers and who seemed utterly horrified by what was going to happen to Emma who was now on the floor her whole body shaking violently.

Elsa was sat next to her trying to keep her talking, talking about magic, about Killian and Henry. Henry who was struggling because Regina was licking her wounds in private because Emma had saved Marion's life, Killian who she knew was behind this ice wall desperately trying to find a way to free her and then she thought of Giselle. She didn't mention her to Elsa, didn't know why she had even thought of Giselle but she did, for a second she thought of that dark-haired woman that had watched her world burn and had rebuilt it and she found herself hoping that she could spend more time with her, to have a friendship with her the type that she didn't have with Belle.

Giselle was a strong woman who was remarkably fragile as well, Emma knew the type, hell she was the type. Deep down she had to admit the irony that came with that, hell she had to admit the emotion that came with that. Giselle had made it perfectly clear that to have a relationship with her meant having a relationship with Killian and Gold that was productive.

But there was a pause where she lay on the floor and she tried not to think of all the people she was leaving behind as she closed her eyes. She tried to call upon the fight that had got her through the brutal years of foster care, the curse, Henry dying, Henry coming back to life, Henry behind kidnapped, finding Neal, losing Neal-twice and time traveling because…well…time travel but she couldn't. She couldn't fight anymore.

She was listening to Elsa trying to communicate with her father and get a handle on these admittedly impressive powers when she felt her eyes close. They were getting heavier and heavier to open and it was only when she felt the first puff of warm air hit her that she felt like lifting her head.

With a strength that a woman of her petite form should not possess Emma felt Elsa lift her up force her to her feet and through the hole she had made and then she fell. Straight into Killian's arms.

And from the corner of her eye she saw Giselle Jones in pyjama shorts and a hoodie her feet crammed into boots watching from the corner of her car, her head tilted to the side as if she was viewing something, as if she had to think about something for a second and wasn't sure if she wanted to be a part of this reunion. They caught eyes for another second and then Giselle jerked her head with a small smile as if to say 'If you must'.

If this was a strange way of getting a blessing that Belle had never got Emma didn't know what to think about it, she didn't need Giselle's blessing but she had seen the way the girl carried herself around Belle and knew that she didn't want that for herself. She wanted a relationship that was comfortable and open and trusting, for her and Giselle as well as Henry and Killian.

She had known Giselle since she was Scarlett and had liked her since then. She wanted the four of them, her, her son, Killian and his daughter to be a family. A real family. It was that realisation that toppled her over the edge both mentally and physically.

And then Emma's legs went out from under her and she fainted in Killian's arms.

* * *

Storybrooke. Earlier. Giselle's Perspective.

The honeymoon period was officially over.

This was a week after Emma had asked her to text her father about the new presence in Storybrooke and a quiet night in with a cup of tea and the new season of Law and Order SVU, when it seemed a power shortage had cut through that plan and a combination of sheer boredom and the fact that she was now pissed off at missing her program went to see if her father could do anything about the missing power.

She didn't change from her pyjama shorts, her old hoodie, her hair piled onto the top of her head with a messy knot, and her boots and the cold wind was biting her legs when she pushed open the shop door. Typically, it was lit and warm, of course she thought scathingly, her father would use magic to light the shop up just to prove that he had magic to the poor suffering town folk.

It was both a comfort and a hindrance that he had not changed that particular aspect of his being when he decided to take the plunge down the whole dark tunnel that she suspected this marriage would turn out to be.

She opened the door to see her father deep in conversation with her Dad and David and just in time to hear that her father had given his dagger to Belle.

"You did what?" she asked making the three men and Belle all jump.

Her father shot her a look that was half annoyed at the interruption and half calculated because he knew that if anyone could read him better than himself it was the girl who had grown up loving him despite everything. Thankfully David and her Dad were so distracted by her appearance that they decided not to comment on the surprise that she was clearly displaying as well as the incredulity.

"Did you go out walking at night in that?" her Dad said looking both horrified and worried gesturing no doubt to her bare legs but Giselle could not take her eyes of her father's face whose expression was carefully blank, he was reading her she realised with a quick hit to the stomach to see if she would tell them the truth, she rolled her eyes. To anyone else they would think it was at the comment of her dress to her father she knew it was something different.

Then he smiled. Nobody saw it but Giselle because it was gone so quickly, but she knew.

No way in hell had he given the dagger to Belle.

He had given her a copy.

A part of her was impressed that he had found a way to con everyone but her, a part of her was annoyed that once again he was doing something nefarious and the other part of her couldn't help but privately think that this was hardly a good way to start a marriage off.

"What's happened now" she said changing the subject and stomping to the front desk.

"Honestly I was just setting down and then the power went off and it's sub-zero conditions outside and yes David" she said smirking because the man was still staring at her like she was a mirage. "Women have legs, I apricate the fact that you don't get to see enough of your wife's but women do wear shorts in this day and age"

Both her father and her Dad snorted at that, shot each other horrified looks and then looked away as Belle caught her eye and grinned. David blushed.

"Emma is trapped in an ice cave with a woman called Elsa and she's dying" her Dad said pain in every syllable after it seemed he and her father had come to a mental agreement to never speak about the time they almost agreed on something.

Giselle blinked, she considered that both her father and David looked horrified at the thought and didn't roll her eyes at the fact that once again Emma was at the centre of a natural magical disaster that was affecting them all.

"Do you have a lead?" she asked finally.

"Bo Peep" David supplied and this time Giselle couldn't help but release the snort of laughter that came out. She managed halfway to turn it into a hacking cough but she saw her father bit his lip and she knew that they were thinking the same thing.

Bo fucking Peep.

"Ok" she said finally. "I'll come with you, look" she said when both her father's showed every sign of interrupting she rolled her eyes more violently.

"Look" she said again. "We all had a deal, boundaries and acceptance and this is the first chance to put it into practice. I will help get Emma free spend the night at hers with everyone and come back in the morning"

She could see her father desperately trying to find a problem and was amused when it became clear that he could find none. Belle shot him a look that made Giselle want to gag and that seemed to cement his mind.

"Ok" he said finally. "Be back before lunch"

The walk to Bo Peep's butcher shop was brief and Giselle was more than content to wait outside because the smell of now warm meat was making her stomach roll violently.

She thought hard about what had just happened. If she was a different person, the person she was trying to be, a happy person she would tell David her father still had control of his dagger, that the safety he thought he had was a sham but she couldn't. At the core of her being she knew her father was still the same man he had always been and she was still the same girl that had thought him even scaly amazing.

she considered what him keeping the dagger meant. Clearly, he had some plan in the works experience had told her that if nothing else and she bit her lip trying to think what it was. No doubt it was nefarious and would see the other members of her insane extended family…if that was what they were on the opposite side but she found she could not see what side she would be on.

If you had asked her a week ago when everything was muddled up she would have said that there was no chance that she would be on any other side than her father's but now…

Now…

She pondered on this all the way to the truly impressive ice wall surrounding the town. Giselle had grown up around powerful magic, it had been a friend, a companion and a menace all her life and even she had to admit that this was impressive.

This was more than impressive.

This would wipe the floor with Emma, Regina, and probably her father would struggle to come up against this.

Giselle waited by the car as David spoke to the woman keeping Emma trapped and especially when ice shards went flying and she saw yet another Disney princess stagger out of the ice. It was hard to tell, what came first, them, or the Disney classics that the kids watched in kindergarten.

There was certainly no movie about Giselle's life probably because there was no way in hell they could make it kid friendly.

Emma staggered out, fell into her Dad's arms and then looked at her.

Honestly. Emma was least of her concerns right now.

She nodded her head to try and say what she had tried to say in the dinner the other week but Emma collapsed and that put the end to that conversation.

At least for now.

And then without warning she found the words, the word, was easy to say.

She could do _this_.

She could have a family like this and she could be happy.

Good grief.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Charming's Apartment. Killian's Perspective.

The woman's name was Elsa and she looked stricken. Hell, she looked more than that. The part of him that was a father wanted to hug her but the part of him that was still madly in love with Emma Swan wanted to scream at her that she could have cost him the second love of his life.

They had wrapped Emma up in blankets, Henry finding a heating contraption and Snow White turning up halfway through finding out Elsa's sister was alive. Giselle had kicked off her boots and sat down taking one of the spare blankets Killian had passed her and wrapping it around her cold legs.

He would have to talk to her about that, who wore short contraptions like that even when they retired to bed? In winter?

He should have said something on Neverland when the sneaking Lost Boys probably took turns watching her through the bushes but he'd had a feeling she'd have hit him.

And they were in the middle of rescuing the lad now curled around his mother.

Emma fell asleep at the same time the baby did and Snow White who looked like she needed sleep too put Emma to bed in her old room and shouted down any protests from Elsa about sleeping on the floor sending the other woman up with her to sleep on Henry's bed, Henry was taking the air mattress on the floor, the Charming's in their own bed and he and Giselle were sharing the pull-out couch.

Henry, Snow White, Emma and the baby fell asleep within minutes leaving David checking his email thing, Giselle staring into space and Elsa staring at the stick that was sounding out her sister's heartbeat.

"Ok" Giselle said, "I need a tea, and a drink, what you got David?"

David shot her a disapproving look but seeing as he looked like he needed a drink himself relented.

"Whiskey is in the bottom cabinet but bring a tea with you so Snow doesn't think I'm taking the head and shoulders of the bottle alone"

Giselle poured three whiskeys and a shot of something out of a clear bottle labelled Vodka mixing it with Henry's soda for herself.

She passed them around, Elsa took a sip gagged and then decided to down all of it in one go wordlessly asking for another. Her hands had stopped shaking which Killian supposed meant they were not about to be buried in an avalanche.

He downed his as did David and then the three of them all decided universally to savour their second.

Giselle set about making tea with a frighteningly calm competence that reminded him of Milah when he used to come home drunk from a port and fall into bed.

"Dad you want tea?" she asked not looking up from the kettle.

David choked on his whiskey.

For a second he thought she'd forgotten that Gold was not in the room and then he realised with a wild hope that she was talking to him. She was looking at him too her dark eyes filled with something that looked like nerves. An expression he realised that he had never seen before.

The ice it seemed around his daughter was melting.

For a second he couldn't breathe. Killian had been enough to contend himself with but Dad…

Dad…

The one thing he had wanted and had reconciled himself to never having.

Dad.

He forced a smile on his face before he started crying and ruined everything.

"Aye darling tea will do fine"

He was Dad now it slid into place like it had been missing inside of him all this time.

Dad.

Whatever happened to him, he would never forget this, this feeling or this night.

Giselle's warm smile was the best reward he could have ever gained.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Killian prepares for his first date with Emma, Giselle ends up helping, a woman called the Snow Queen makes an appearance and Giselle confronts her father about his decision to give Killian two hands.**

 **And let me know what you think**

 **I will try and update as soon as I can. **


	33. Dates With Dads

**Hi, so here is another chapter, I apologise for the lateness and the probably lateness of the next chapter but I am going back to uni soon and am currently moving out so things are a little busy at the moment.**

 **Here is another chapter and it's mainly just Giselle dealing with the truce that she knows is fake between her father's. As season 4 progresses I promise you that we do see Giselle showing her weaker side, finally trusting people but before that we do get some fun confrontations because as much as she is Killian's daughter the way she sees it she is also still Gold's and we all know what he's about to do.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 33-Dates With Dads

Killian prepares for his first date with Emma, Giselle ends up helping, a woman called the Snow Queen makes an appearance and Giselle confronts her father about his decision to give Killian two hands

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _All changes even the most longed for have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves. We must die to one life before we can enter another"_** **(Anatole France)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

She should have known something was wrong. She should have known something was…well perhaps not wrong but…off when she saw Killian lurking-and there really was no other word for it-lurking outside school from where she staggered out the door.

It wasn't that Giselle wasn't glad to see him because she was learning that when she did see him she was glad. Killian…no her Dad had managed to make her feel at ease in a way her other father had never been able to do. With her other father, there had always been a bit of calculation in the love she felt for him. She wasn't sure that love was what she felt for her Dad but she knew that there was no calculation.

And there had been no more sightings of this woman calling herself the 'Snow Queen' since she had apparently frozen Marion at the first town meeting Snow White had held since becoming mayor, a thing that had made her father smirk with barely concealed glee and had for once made him call Regina to see how she was doing.

It couldn't be because he was worried about the Snow Queen returning? Giselle had not been there for that confrontation having been in school and she was not overly convinced by Emma's story that nobody was ever in any danger but she had decided to believe it because everyone was alive and now they finally had a reason-or so it seemed-to trust Elsa at her word when she said she was not the one going around causing people to fall into a deep freeze sleep, or whatever it was called.

There was no real reason for him to be there other than the fact that he wanted to see her and that filled with her a dangerous mix of both elation, hope and a little bit of fear.

So, when she staggered out of school weighed down with enough homework that she really did not start at any point it was to see her Dad loitering around the gate his hook curled around the railings with interest.

"Hey" she said cautiously and then without warning he slid an arm around her and pulled her to his side so that they were in some sort of strange hug. For a second Giselle couldn't breathe, she had no idea what to do but her Dad was for once not worried about her reaction to this strange kind of touching between the two of them.

"How was school?" He asked and he genuinely sounded interested which was well, strange she supposed.

Giselle had to remind herself that she had wanted this. She had wanted a relationship with him and therefore she shouldn't complain when she got one. She looked at him…she really looked at him and noticed that he was smiling. Oh god.

"What happened to you?" she asked finally. She doubted that he was smiling because of the whole Elsa thing, especially because the ice wall was still up and the cold wind was blowing the ice and snow into the town and making them all get their coats and boots out to wear over their uniform.

"Emma asked me out" he said finally beaming and something in Giselle just…stopped.

She stopped on the sidewalk her boots clacking. Her school uniform was a skirt, tights, her boots, shirt, tie and jumper with her coat thrown over it and her hair had been tied back of her face in a knot on top of her head and suddenly Giselle had a moment where she stood completely still thinking hard over what he had just said. There was a pause when she stood there and then she turned and found that she didn't even have to paste a smile on her face and pretend like she would when it was her father and Belle and she took in the look on her Dad's face and realised that no matter how hard it was for her to imagine yet another woman in her life in this regard, it was Emma and he looked…happy.

And…she had never known her mother so…so she didn't really have a leg to stand on when it came to asking if this meant that he had loved her less did she?

For a second she wanted to ask Bae what he thought, if it was worth brining up her genuine curiosity about her mother that had never gone away even more so when she learned the truth about her death.

"I'm glad" she said and she was. Because this was Emma Swan and while Giselle and Emma had, had a few…disagreements over the past they had still managed to have a good relationship…well…better than whatever she had with Belle, though she knew that even that was beginning to get somewhat manageable though she suspected that was because they only ever saw the other when they were in the same house which was mainly at night and then they were both desperate to sleep and pretend that the whole arrangement wasn't…awkward.

And then another thought came to her. She eyed him. Her Dad had not changed his clothes since she had met him and she had reckoned he had not changed them since long before that. His clothes were always good, but they were worn and hand washed and he lived in them and more to the point that was alright when he and Emma had been doing this little dance that had dragged them around the town like lovesick puppies but…well…she wasn't the only one that was changing, it wasn't fair that it was just her that was evolving.

And…well…he really did have to get out of those clothes.

"Gizzy?" her Dad asked suddenly and she realised that she was still stood on the sidewalk gazing into space and that there was a very real chance that he had not taken in a word that she had said before. She smiled feeling a migraine coming on mixed with a beat of panic that came when she realised what she was about to say. The fear was something less than the very real possibility that her Dad might not want anything to do with her, than the fact that for the first time she was actively seeking out things to do with her biological parent.

Unless she supposed you counted that thing with the missing year but to be honest she was so filled with grief last year that she wouldn't have cared if she was travelling with Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men.

"I'm happy for you" she said finally and she meant it. She did. This was…odd if nothing else but to her surprise her Dad gave a great smile and then wrapped his arm more tightly around her in a gesture that was filled with love so much so that even she could feel it as cynical as she thought she was. Emma and her Dad coming together was as natural as Giselle waking up in the morning and wanting her usual pumpkin spice lattes.

Her Dad stared at her for a second longer and there was more calculation in that gaze than Giselle had ever seen before and to be honest she could not blame him. She had never made herself shy when it came to her father about her opinion of Belle and she supposed that he knew that. Giselle met his gaze with a flat one of his own and wondered again how it was that father and daughter were on opposite sides of what seemed like the whole world and not for the first time she wondered what it would have been like if she had lived with him and her mother, had been raised by them and loved by them and would never have to stare at her father with calculation in her eyes wondering what he was thinking about her at any given moment.

"I am happy for you" she said again because it was the truth and there had been so many lies between the two of them-hell their entire relationship was built upon lies, the idea of the other was always centred upon lies and Giselle was honestly too tired to tell them or live by them anymore.

And then she remembered something.

"You cannot go out with Emma looking like that" she said pointing at him.

"You're staying in the 21st century now, time to get use to modern things. And for a start we can tackle your godforsaken wardrobe because there is only gonna be so much time before people stop being afraid of you and start commenting on it"

And that, if anyone ever cared to ask and she doubted that they would, was the story of how Killian Jones got new clothes, how he began to understand modern shopping and how Giselle started to wonder with an increased deliberation if murder was really that terrible an option.

But still. At least now he looked halfway decent. Even her father who showed up at Granny's when they were having tea commented that now the _'Bastard doesn't look completely stupid and embarrassing-and now I feel a lot more comfortable letting you out in public with him, and please be home for dinner tonight'_ which Giselle thought considering that her father still had control of his dagger and was spending every day of his new marriage lying and pretending that nobody knew about was…well a start.

But that was before.

Before he went and did something that even Giselle with her time spent learning how he operated, watching how her father manipulated and played the game somehow always ending up on top-could not have predicted he would do. Because even to her it seemed unthinkable. And a little disturbing to be honest.

He gave Hook his hand back.

And really, that should have been her first clue that her father was going to once again refuse to live in peace with the man he blamed for taking away his wife and by association, his son.

* * *

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective.

It was bizarre Killian knew, not the new clothes, not even the hand which had been something he had both longed for and dreaded in equal measure for so long, but this…this peace with Giselle, this half-life where he could walk with her to school and meet her afterwards and share a coffee (which was rapidly growing on him-only it had to be black not that unnatural sweet thing she drank) before she went back to her other father.

It was something he had dreamt of for so long and perhaps it was not completely what he had wanted but if you had lived on the outskirts for so long like he had, believing and fighting for even a small morsel of affection then you wouldn't blame him for constantly being on edge that something he said and something he did would tip the scales and would send him right back to where he started.

He had thought Emma would do that. He knew Giselle and Swan had been friends but Giselle's unswerving loyalty to the Dark One, something to do with Henry and Emma's complicated past with Bae had seen the two of them square off on more than one occasion. He could remember word for word what she had said in the Echo Caves in Neverland and if truth be told he was not entirely sure she had moved past those feelings.

But she had looked at him with those eyes in that face and with that expression of blank control so very much like her mother's when she was thinking about something, her mind racing a mile a minute and then with the composure of a woman that should, he thought, be born royal she had smiled one of those rare genuine smiles he soaked up like sunshine and told him she was happy for him.

They had spent the whole day together and Killian was a combination of deliriously happy that they were doing things that in this world were considered normal for a dad and his daughter to do and desperate to do it again. She had given him advice and laughed when he saw some of the more…revealing clothes on sale for girls…not at all apparently understanding that looking like a woman of ill repute was something of a 'fashion trend'.

And then the bloody Dark One gave him hand back and Giselle stared with those eyes and Killian got the impression that for the first time the Dark One had done something that had truly shocked his daughter. For the first time he had outmanaged the one woman who might know enough to stop him and she was genuinely confused by it even as she smiled and told him to go on his merry way to his date with Swan.

He had wondered about it all the way up to Swan's door and then she had opened it and…well…rational thought went flying out the window.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Night of the Date. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had carefully chosen to wait to when the door had shut behind her Dad's back so that he could go out on his date that she had so helpfully decided to help him with. He was looking…well…presentable now and she was more than happy to see him go out and be happy or whatever it was that daughters of men who were…for lack of a better word widowed, would do when their fathers started dating again. Therefore, she gritted her teeth at the thought of the Charming's and their never-ending supply of cheerfulness for a second and then she turned to her father and asked the burning question that she thought that both she and her Dad had wanted to ask when he saw her come through the back to see him with two hands.

"What the hell was that?" she asked. Her father picked up a book and flicked through the pages with a look of supreme disinterest mixed in with one of supreme smugness.

"What the hell was what dear?" he asked and Giselle rolled her eyes for once not caring how rude it was, she was struggling to understand this.

This gift of generosity was unusual for her father and she couldn't help but think that she was heading head first into a dangerous trap. Into one of the deals that she herself had been a part of, that she had seen for so long and watched as they managed to destroy people both good and bad, no matter how much she had always been promised she would never be a part of.

"Giving Killian his hand back" she said slipping back into her old moniker for him. Her father looked as serene as a snake waiting to pounce.

"I am trying like you said, to foster relationships with…" he rolled his eyes.

"Good Lord I cannot even kid myself. He asked me and I gave it to him because I thought it would make you happy. Truth be told I don't think that he will last a night with two hands. He's changed too much, Emma and you have tamed him" he said this with as much contempt as he could possibly manage and Giselle resisted the urge to smile at the look on his face.

"He's changed from the man that had two hands. I doubt that you wanted to know him when he was swaggering around with your mother on the deck of that awful ship. His hand is attached to that man that he was then. Even I will admit he has changed. Love" he shook his head.

"Some will say that changed you" Giselle said leaning over the counter so that they were staring at each other.

"I think we both know that, that is a lie." And she flickered her eyes to the safe behind his back where she knew the real dagger was kept.

He looked at her then for a long time and then shrugged.

"You're the only woman my girl who knows me best. I love Belle you know that but not even Belle can claim that title. I am confident in your loyalty to me, confident in your love for me and while that is constant for you it will be constant for me as well. So, make of the dagger what you will"

And that Giselle noted was the only way she was ever going to get any type of conformation that her father had double crossed his wife and had kept control of his power.

Really, she thought to herself that night as she listened to Belle talk about how excited she was for Emma to move on (her father having mysteriously vanished claiming something to do with the Snow Queen), how had this woman that claimed to know and love her father not have any conception of what her father was capable of?

"And it was so brave of Killian taking that Snow Queen on single handed and nearly getting stabbed with ice, no wonder that was the driving force for them getting together"

Giselle stared at her plate for a second forcing her expression to remain disinterested. She had not heard this story and she was going to kill her Dad for letting her get caught unawares, two hands or not.

Instead she forced a smile on her face and said so sweetly it was like condensed milk with sugar mixed in "I know, but all that matters to me is that he's happy, I'm gonna go and catch an early night's sleep"

Belle seemed to take her at her word because she simply turned back to her book with a rather knowing expression that wanted to make Giselle reach for that book and beat her over the head with it. There was always something about her relationship with Belle, whenever she felt like they were peacefully co-existing, something happened to make her want to smack the woman for taking Rosanna's place, for taking her mother's place with none of the skill that either woman would have (she hoped) used.

Instead she stomped up to her bedroom knowing that she was acting for once rather childish, changed into her old ratty jumper and shorts and climbed into her big double bed trying to not to imagine her Dad with icicles hanging over his head or the smile on her father's face when he had talked about the man her Dad had once been.

More than anything Giselle wanted to dream away this whole nightmare, until she was back in the Enchanted Forest and Rosanna was making her breakfast and teaching her how to be just what she knew even then she couldn't be. Ordinary.

Because she knew, because she knew the two men sworn to hate each other but also sworn to love her only too well and who would know better than she did that the fragile peace that had sprung up between them was on borrowed time.

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 **Next Chapter-The Snow Queen's plot thickens, a spell is shown to the world, Emma must deal with her magic, Giselle deals with what she feels is the increasing hypocrisy of the Charming's and Killian must deal with being a pawn in a much bigger play with his daughter at stake.**

 **And I will try and update as soon as I can, let me know what you think. **


	34. The Queen Of Snow

**Hi, so here is another chapter, due to workload and some struggles that came with watching this season due to several character inaccuracies (my personal opinion) I have decided to make the chapters of this arc shorter, so in all Season 4 will be shorter, kinda like Season 1. So some plot holes and some moments may be missed like this whole mirror with Belle in this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing in this chapter is mine.**

 **The Charming's really pissed me off here, Emma was their child and there reaction to not only her loss of control but also her wanted to rip apart her magic was really disgusting and in my opinion totally selfish which is what I thought Giselle should tell them. Also I know Gold is just in it for Emma's magic but I also wonder why he would help her when he waited twenty eight years for her to break the curse and use her magic to reunite him with his son so...**

 **The next chapter will deal with the Gold/dagger arc I promise.**

 **Please read and review.**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 34-The Queen Of Snow

The Snow Queen's plot thickens, a spell is shown to the world. Emma must deal with her magic. Giselle deals with what she feels is the increasing hypocrisy of the Charming's and Killian must deal with being a pawn in a much bigger play with his daughter at stake.

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 ** _"_** ** _Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy"_** **(F. Scott Fitzgerald.)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective

The spell of shattered sight.

Giselle was not surprised when she heard it. In fact, she was beginning to think that nothing that happened in this town would surprise her and that was including the little 'slip up' as her father called it that Emma Swan had with her magic that had sent half of the town's lighting system crashing down on David and had seen the Snow Queen's escape.

Her father-who had practically wrote the book when it came to the misuse and misadventures with magic had simply sat down that night waved himself a strong glass of scotch and told a stunned Belle and an amused Giselle that Emma was simply 'teething' and if the Charming's had _'had more sense than they wouldn't go around treating magic and the people that wield it like something they could use and then discard to their own amusement'_ which Giselle supposed was the closest thing that Emma Swan would ever get to a defence coming from her father and if truth be told she couldn't help but think that her father might have a point even as Belle began admonishing him.

Leaving the happily married couple to it, Giselle shouldered her coat over her flannel grey and white shirt and ripped jeans. She wanted to go and see how her other father was doing. Finding out just how unstable your girlfriend was when it came to her magic was probably not something that he had been prepared for despite how many times he had claimed that he was prepared. Also she was more than a little curious to know what the Snow Queen had said that had seen Emma Swan lose control like that.

The second she walked in through the Charming's front door which for some insane reason seemed to be always unlocked, Giselle realised that her father had left her and now she was forced near as damn it to spend at least one hour with the Charming's fussing and screaming and panicking. Even Henry had buggered off so Giselle sat down next to Elsa who had snowflakes spinning above her, pulled out her phone and wondered what would happen first-the baby waking up and crying or one of them noticing they had company.

She was just contemplating whether or not to fire of a text to her Dad and make sure that he wasn't doing anything stupid like storming an ice cave or whatnot when Henry Mills slipped back through the door shaking like a leaf and bleeding from the ear.

Giselle was concerned, she was not a heartless monster and though she and Henry had, had many disagreements in the past she was worried that one day the faith that the kid had was going to get him killed. "I saw her" Henry gasped and then the Charming's were on top of him demanding answers, wondering what had happened and debating whether they needed Regina or a hospital.

"Personally" Giselle muttered to Elsa who was looking utterly bemused. "I would go with the former. Hell, hath no fury than Regina when she isn't kept in the loop with incidents involving her son. I reckon during the curse she had all of his teachers except for Snow White over here on the payroll"

Elsa blinked and bit her lip as Henry stomped upstairs as the conversation that Giselle had missed was now apparently at it's end. "I should get him some ice" she muttered and she left.

Giselle suspected that it was less to do with being helpful and more to do with the fact that Henry was at least to her, the sanest one out of all of them, and really…that was fucking terrifying.

Instead she turned her attentions to the Charming's. David was ringing Regina again and even though she had been steadfastly ignoring him the first eight times he had called Giselle was willing to bet her boots that she would come running over the second that she heard that Henry had been caught in the crossfire.

She felt sorry for the kid but really what the hell was he thinking? She got deep down that he wanted to protect his Mom but this faith that everything could be fixed with a damn book, a bit of faith and cinnamon on your cocoa was gonna get him killed one of these days. Even as a child younger than Henry, Giselle had learnt that you never sneak up on someone accidently practicing magic least it become dangerous and unpredictable. It was the golden rule and she would have thought that at the very least Regina would have told Henry that.

The Charming's for all their many gifts were completely clueless. Sat there watching them at the kitchen table waiting for an acknowledgement that she knew by now was never gonna come Giselle knew they didn't have a clue what they were doing.

A part of her did feel bad about it she had to confess even to herself. They had never had a chance to understand how the inside of Emma worked because they had never had the chance to raise Emma. Perhaps things would have been different if Emma Swan had been raised as the Princess of the Enchanted Forest.

But the part of her that had been the Dark One's daughter for so long that she didn't know how to be anything else knew that it was never that simple. Magic was inevitably tied to your emotions and it was dangerous and uncontrollable when you let your emotions get the better of you. Her father had relied on bone deep resignation and a thrill of excitement that came with the power, Elsa relied on fear as her trigger, Regina's had been for so long anger, Zelena had used envy as her strength. Nobody knew what Emma's emotional tether was going to be because…well…Giselle wasn't sure there was one emotion that directly tied into what Emma felt on a day to day basis.

But that didn't change the fact that someone was going to have to explain to this family that believed in hope so much it made a cynic like her nauseous that a wish upon a star was not going to help them. They should have understood. Giselle could imagine Emma's shock only too well when she looked up to her parents expecting like every child did…understanding and only seeing fear.

Crap. She and Emma had had their difficulties but nobody deserved to feel that way and Emma had faults but Giselle knew her magic was not one of them.

Wherever her Dad was she was going to have to find him and help him she knew. Because right now she suspected that she might be the only person that knew how to talk to Emma. Ok so there was Elsa but knowing Elsa there was a very good chance that they would be buried in snow before the evening was out.

The only problem was the last time she had technically been alone with Emma she had threatened the other woman within an inch of her life.

And she wasn't really looking forwards to getting her arse thrown back into a tree.

Just as she was debating if it was worth ringing her Dad and asking him to tell her where he was so that she could meet him and ask him if he wanted help on the quest that she knew he was trying to complete (and she did know there was a quest even if at that exact moment she didn't know _exactly_ what he was doing) when the phone rang and Snow White shouted "Emma!" so loudly that Giselle nearly dropped her phone.

As soon as she knew Emma was alive and well she was finding her father and then she was going home. So long as her Dad didn't do anything stupid there was a very good chance Emma would come home on her own.

Emma had many issues-Giselle would fully admit that she probably had the same issues but she had to admit that Emma had embraced her family a lot more than she herself had done. Though she supposed Emma had never had her parents willingly lie to her for what seemed like half a century but still…

Snow White hung up the phone smiling brightly like all had been resolved. Giselle stared at her leaning forwards in her chair and watching intently about what was happening next. Snow White turned to her husband.

"Emma has decided to give up her magic"

Giselle nearly choked.

"I'm sorry she's what?" she shouted not caring that Henry was upstairs and that the baby was asleep for the first time in what she was sure was months. Getting rid of magic? Getting rid of magic? Giselle's whole life had been about learning and understanding magic and she didn't even have the fucking gift? The Saviour, the child of True Love, the breaker of this curse and the fucking Princess of the Enchanted Forest giving up her magic?

Giselle could only imagine her father, who had manipulated and schemed Emma's birth, had made Regina into the woman who could cast a curse he had written and he had put finding Bae on hold for twenty-eight years in order to sit back and watch the part that Emma Swan had to play. Hell, the whole town had, if she gave up her magic now Giselle thought a trace of bitterness in her mind, then she may as well have left them under the curse.

Somehow, she didn't think the Charming's were thinking this through. The town would need a protector, a protector with magic. Regina's grip on her light magic was struggling at best and her father would either destroy the town or make the town. Emma was their best shot at a safe spot between the two of them and Giselle couldn't understand how the Charming's even in their constant hopeful idiotic state could see themselves as rulers over a kingdom where they had encouraged the one thing miscreants feared to give away the very thing that defined her. There would be fucking mutiny. Not to mention magic was not something that you could discard like last night's takeout.

"Magic is not something you get rid of on a whim" she stressed trying to explain. "I have grown up around it and it could probably do more harm than good, hell if it doesn't kill Emma it will leave her resenting you for the rest of her life"

David scoffed looking at her with that look he reserved for Henry and that made her teeth set on edge. She had seen too much and done too much for Prince-Fucking-Charming to look at her like she was a little kid playing with the grownups.

"We are not forcing this decision" he said with a pomp that made her want to smack him.

"No" she said standing up "But it hardly helps when you look at her with disgust in your eyes does it. Look, Emma has a lot of problems I know that you know that but she doesn't deserve that. You cannot use magic and the people that use it for your own needs and then discard them like trash when they have a slip"

She shook her head when Snow White made to interrupt. "Regina. Father. Ruby. Emma. God only knows how many other people. This is just…this makes dumping your child in a block of wood and expecting her to save the world look good." She shook her head in disgust.

"And if it doesn't kill her, if it doesn't change her, make her feel like it was a part of her that got ripped away then I guarantee you when the next fucking monster comes for us then you are on your own and we'll see how many people follow you into battle, remember after the curse? Emma's the only thing keeping the two of you standing" she shook her head.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna do your job and find your daughter and tell her that one slip up is not a bad thing and that she isn't some disgusting monster that needs to change so her parents will love her"

And with that she walked out slamming the door behind her and only feeling amusement when she heard the baby crying from being disturbed from his nap.

Fucking Charming's.

Now of course she had to find Killian because she was willing to bet that he had found Emma out of sheer bloody determination and the ability to understand how she thought.

Thank God Giselle had trust issues and therefore had a GPS tracking app installed on Killian's phone when he bought it a month ago.

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The Sorcerers Mansion. Killian's Perspective.

He kept rubbing the spot where his heart had been and wincing every so often. He had to give the bastard some credit, he had thought Giselle, taking her, forcing him to live in that hell of having no knowledge was a nightmare.

Gods he had had no fucking clue had he?

The warmth that he usually felt for his daughter was gone. The love for both her and Emma, gone. The friendship he kept with Robin and on occasion David…gone. All of it, his emotions, his heart. Gone.

Gold had his heart and his daughter and Killian now couldn't do a damn thing to take either one back.

And he couldn't feel any despair even though he knew it was swirling around his brain. Giselle. Emma. Henry. His family.

There was nothing.

There was the sound of running feet and he turned to see Elsa. She did not even look at him just ran into the house her blue dress flying around her. Killian watched oddly detached from the whole thing.

He really could not feel anything.

He loathed to admit it but the bastard was good. If he had done this after he had taken Giselle then Killian might have survived with considerably less mental scaring but he supposed that was the point.

"Dad" came a voice to his left and he turned to see Giselle. He was still on his knees and she dropped next to him her dark hair flying over her shoulders, concern etched across her beautiful face.

Gods she was so stunning.

Gods he loved his daughter so much.

And Gods, right now he could not feel that love.

This would kill him.

* * *

"Elsa went to help Emma" he said finally. "Do not follow there is a lot of unstable magic"

"Is…oh…that what happened to you?" she asked taking him in.

He felt something squeeze in his chest.

"Yes" he said and he knew the words were not his own.

He staggered to his feet and ran inside Giselle dithering.

Emma was alive, she still had her magic, she was still alive and whole.

And Killian could still feel nothing.

* * *

The Sorcerers Mansion. Emma's Perspective

Giselle was waiting for them outside.

Elsa was almost skipping in glee and Killian was following letting her go ahead. Giselle smiled at her, the real smile that Scarlett Gold had smiled not that twisted smirk. She looked so impossibly like her brother when she smiled that Emma felt her heart twist a little in remembrance of Neal.

"I see you didn't do anything too stupid" Giselle said casually. "Good, I was worried. Might have yelled a little at your parents. Nothing they didn't have coming I can assure you" she smiled again but Emma was only really registering one thing.

"You were worried about me?"

"Yeah" Giselle said in a would-be-casual voice. "You mean a lot to Dad, you meant a lot to Neal. I don't hate you"

She shrugged.

There was something unspoken in that. Approval perhaps? Either way Emma didn't care. She grinned back and her hand found Giselle's.

For a split second, they were stood there hand-clasped and then when they heard sounds of running footsteps they let go simultaneously.

Later Emma would see her parents, learn about the spell of shattered sight, suffer through it, have one final showdown with the woman that she blamed for ruining her life-or at least somewhat ruining her life-and learn what had happened to Killian this night. Later Giselle would do all of the above herself.

But right there and then they were two women putting the past to bed between them and looking forwards to a somewhat good-looking future.

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 **And I will update as soon as I can.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **Next Chapter-As Giselle and her friends suffer through the Spell of Shattered Sight the aftermath sees Belle make a decision that will forever change Giselle's life, Killian's relationship with his daughter and will see Giselle finally confront the people of Storybrooke on what she really thinks of them.**


	35. All These Sorrows I Have Seen

**Hi so here is another chapter, I apologise for the lateness of the posting but I have been so busy with uni work and regular work and so therefore my writing has suffered a little. Also this chapter does deal with a few episodes condensed into one chapter.**

 **Also to any Belle fans this chapter is not Belle friendly. I am attempting to look at the events of Belle and Gold's relationship in Season 4 trough the eyes of Giselle. I didn't like Belle in this series anyway and even though I know Gold is a villain I really hated the way Belle treated him like she only married him for the house and moved on within six weeks which I think considering your somebody else's 'soulmate' is rather hypocritical, so if you are a die hard Belle fan you might wanna skip the next couple of chapters because we really get to see Dark One's Daughter's-Giselle come out and fight.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 35-All These Sorrows I Have Seen

As Giselle and her friends suffer through the Spell of Shattered Sight the aftermath sees Belle make a decision that will forever change Giselle's life, Killian's relationship with his daughter and will see Giselle finally confront the people of Storybrooke-and one in particular, on what she really thinks of them.

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 ** _"_** ** _We all are living in a dream. But life ain't what it seems. Oh, everything's a mess. And all these sorrows I have seen, they lead me to believe that everything's a mess. But I wanna dream"_**

Storybrooke. Before the Spell of Shattered Sight, Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had been at home preparing for the spell. Her father had made it clear that the house would be under a spell of protection and that it would only be broken if she let people in during the spell's inaction. He told her over breakfast that morning that he would be at the shop during the curse with Belle but that he would be home as soon as it was safe to return. He said he planned to help the fairies prevent the spell but Giselle would no longer believe that than she could fly herself. Instead she decided to turn her attention to her tea.

Someday she would wonder how much she was willing to observe and take when it came to her father and the lengths he would go to, to gain fire. That being said he was her father. There had been a time where he had been the only parent she had in the world and that kind of loyalty was in her opinion-unshakable.

And she only hoped it was the same in Belle…because the truth about that damn dagger was going to come out sooner or later and when it did if that woman didn't choose to stand by her husband like she had promised in her wedding vows then…Giselle wasn't sure if her love and loyalty for her father would weather her fury.

She had not seen her other father for nearly three days. That was confusing she would admit. Ever since she had given Killian permission so to speak to be in her life as an actual parental figure he had been simply _there_ all the time. Giselle had never really had to go looking for her Dad because he showed up all the time with a hopeful look on his face like he was still unsure about how much time with her he was allowed to take.

So, this separation that they were going through was strange to say the least.

And she couldn't help but feel…almost hurt by it somehow. It was strange, she had spent a lifetime not caring and then a year pretending not to care about what her biological father thought about her and now when she felt like she could actually make something of this relationship with him, he went and disappeared for weeks at a time and whenever she did see him at Granny's he made an excuse to bolt for the door with a sad look upon his face whenever he saw her.

And to be honest with herself while it hurt…and it did, she was honestly too tired to deal with it. There was a spell coming down around them, Emma, Elsa and the Snow Queen were embroiled in a strange kinda threesome that was too disturbing for words and she was nearly ninety nine percent sure that her father was behind all of it and that wasn't even before you took into the account the whole dagger scenario and how that was gonna look when the shit all hit the fan.

So, no, Giselle Jones had quite enough to be up at night worrying about thank you very much, without having to worry about her dad's strange behavior.

Yeah, that was totally the excuse she was going with.

Not that anyone ever bothered to ask.

A few hours before the spell was about to hit her father kissed her on the head told her quite firmly that the protection spell would only react when the first person in town got affected and that she should lock the door and then used magic to poof himself away to make sure Belle was doing the same thing.

Giselle wasn't even bothered by it now. She just turned back to her tea and once again thanked the old gods and the newer world ones that she had someone on her side that could use magic to protect her from this shit without actually being afraid of what would happen when they do.

Suddenly however there was a knock at the door.

She put down her tea and without even flinching reached for the heavy steal ornament that was as ugly as it was heavy-it had been another one of Belle's must haves that she had found somewhere and Giselle tried not to look at the scales on the half fish thing that the statue seemingly dictated. She had a sneaking feeling that it was supposed to be Ariel and if that was the case she thought that the other woman should take offense.

However, she grabbed the shitty thing anyway and opened the door only to see her Dad on the doorstep. She stared at him for a second and then she leaned against the doorstep watching him with an expression that she knew (if the look on his face was anything to go against) was not polite.

"What do you want?" she asked finally. "I thought you'd be with Emma and the rest of that nefarious clan in trying to stop this thing"

"Yes…err…well…I wanted to see you, I know that you have been…that I have been, well I know I have not been around as such and with this curse coming I wanted to see you and let you know I love you…so, so much and I am so proud of you" he finished this in a rush and Giselle stared at him wondering what in the name of all that was good and holy was affecting the men in her life.

"What's happening?" she said finally. "And don't say it's because of the curse because you know that father wouldn't let anything happen to me. So, what the hell are you planning on doing?"

There was a slight twist to her Dad's smile when he looked at her then and had Giselle been aware…had she been aware of what her father was capable of doing again to Giselle rather than to…everybody she would have known.

"Nothing" he said smiling. "Nothing is going to happen that shouldn't have happened years ago I suppose. But I wanted to tell you that I have done many things…many good and bad things, things I've enjoyed and things I've regretted and yet there is only one thing that I would never look back upon and change and that is you. You are the only thing that I have ever done worth anything and despite everything I am so in awe of you and love you so much that it makes my heart stop sometimes. And I realized that despite everything and I mean…everything…I wouldn't change this…relationship of ours, no matter how painstakingly, bloody hard it has been to earn just a fraction of your love and trust"

Giselle nearly dropped the statue. She stared at him for a while and then she was furious and more than a little amused with herself to realize that she was shaking with emotion and her eyes were annoyingly overbright. She shook her head.

"How much crap did the Charming's force you to listen to spiel that truth out? Did they give you the hope and love can defeat anything crap before they turn into monsters? Shame actually because I would have paid good money to see Snow White uncovered as the hypocrite that she pretends she's not"

Her father laughed once loudly and Giselle was more than a little gratified to notice that it was his real laughter and not the forced one he used in life and death situations.

"You know the sarcasm is something that I think I miss the most…your mother, she used to have half my crew on the floor begging for mercy when she set her tongue against them"

It was on the tip of Giselle's tongue to ask why he would miss her sarcasm, after all it wasn't like he was planning to go anywhere anytime soon but she didn't. In hindsight she should have done and then the following events that stemmed from this conversation would have perhaps not been so bad but she didn't.

"Can I hug you?" he asked and there was something in his voice that sounded almost…shy…Giselle didn't have a clue what was going on but she could understand that. She was always the one that initiated the touches between herself and her father and she had been the one that had hugged him before and she could count those occasions on one hand.

"Sure" she said and she wasn't sure if it was because he was asking her or because he looked so woebegone that she could see a way that she could say no but he reached out and pulled her close to him then pressing her to him. She hugged him back and tried to say all the things that she couldn't really say in words in that hug. She wasn't sure if he got it but when she pulled back her Dad had that look on her face that reminded her of when she first met him and he was trying to commit to memory every inch of her face because he knew that the meeting was going to go badly.

"I'll see you around?" she asked unsure of why she had phrased it like a question rather than a given. Her Dad smiled that strange smile and then nodded towards the door.

"Lock that behind you. Stay safe"

There was a double meaning behind those words she was sure but before Giselle could ask him what the hell was going on her father was already gone.

* * *

Storybrooke. A Brief Interlude. Right After The Spell of Shattered Sight. Killian's Perspective.

He was rather surprised to see himself alive at the end of this. He had been sure that the Dark One would kill him and then it would be the final battle between the two of them ending the way it should have ended in the beginning. Gods, how much had he lost because of his arrogance that day? Had he known that he was unleashing by mocking that beggar man on his deck that day he would have never have done it.

He would have never have done any of it. Gods he had lost so much from that day, hadn't he?

A part of him, a really selfish part of his wondered if he would see Milah again, the mother of his child, the first great love of his life…

But he was still alive.

He was glad he had not managed to get Henry. A little bit of teenage ire he could deal with, hell he had been dealing with his own teenager but he was glad that this one thing he had been forced to do, had slipped through his fingers because of Henry's ability to know even under a curse, when something was up.

But now Gold was spilling out his plan, let Emma and Regina battle and lose to the Snow Queen and he would take Henry and Belle and disappear. God, he was hardly listening to this because it was so very obvious and dramatic…Henry and Belle and Giselle.

Wait…he had never said Giselle, though had he?

"What about Giselle?" he answered feeling as old as he was.

The Dark One shrugged. "She can stay here with you" he said as if he didn't care less.

Killian blinked. Everything Giselle had told him led him to believe that the Dark One loved her. Something of this must have shown on his face because Gold gave a long-suffering kind of sigh as if he found Killian's confusion very annoying.

"I love her I do, but she's your daughter as you constantly spend time telling me and…let's just say it's not _prudent_ for me to take her considering her feelings towards Belle and what she knows"

And suddenly Killian understood, because if there was one person who could read Gold as well as him it was Giselle and she of course would not see it as a problem like he would…ah…of course.

"She knows about your dagger switch and that's why you don't want her. you know she'll hold it over you and one day tell Belle to ruin your marriage"

Gold's smile told him all he needed to know.

Giselle was going to commit bloody murder when she found out Killian thought grimmly, she was her mother's daughter indeed.

* * *

Storybrooke. After The Spell of Shattered Sight. Giselle's Perspective. Again.

Her father told her about the trip to New York the next day. Well, he told her that he and Belle were going. It was a belated honeymoon apparently and Giselle found that she couldn't care less.

"Have fun" she said after her father had hugged her once donning his coat.

"See you when you get back" Giselle said grinning "Bring me back a hoodie or something, or a pair of boots."

"You have far too many boots already" her father grumbled grinning. "And…" he paused "You know where my documents are don't you? The will, the deed to the house, all of them are in your name and in the safe so should the lovely Miss Swan give you any grief tell her the shop and house are yours and you can do what you like with them, combination B-G-S-N"

"Yeah, I know all of that it's mine and Neal's curse names and real names not hard to forget" she said laughing.

Her father touched her on the chin once and then disappeared out the door.

It was the last time she saw him again for nearly six weeks.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Same Day. Killian's Perspective.

He'd only had his heart back in his chest ten minutes before it was shattered again. He had been sat with Emma, his hands in her

golden hair and his thoughts comfortable when the door opened and in came Leroy ushering a sobbing a Belle.

He hadn't seen her since she had taken Gold wherever it was she had taken him this time with the real dagger and he had meant to tell Giselle that Belle might be on the warpath but he had been too busy not…well…dying…

It didn't take long for the story to get out.

For a second he was glad that the monster was gone but then he remembered Giselle the last time and this time…

Leroy mentioned that he had sent her a text and while a part of Killian wondered why in Gods names Leroy would have his daughters number a part of him felt his heart sink into his stomach.

"She's going to blame me" he said finally. Emma snapped her expression to him and then back to a confused Belle but this time Killian couldn't do anything to manage the anger flowing inside of him when he looked down at the woman who had probably cost him his daughter.

"Look" he said through his teeth. "Did I want the bastard gone Belle, yeah but there were other ways to go about it rather than making a rash decision and forcing him over the town line with the dagger! Don't you understand what you've done woman, she's going to blame me regardless of the fact that he had my heart and was probably going to kill me, she won't see it like that. You've cost me MY DAUGHTER!"

He all but yelled the last part even as Emma gasped and tugged on his hand, he turned around to see what had captured everyone's attention only to see Giselle standing there. She was wearing purple trousers with a black jumper and boots and her hair was loose making her look so like Milah.

Her expression was one of contorted fury.

Also, he noted, a little bit like Milah.

Her eyes were on Belle and suddenly Killian knew what his daughter was about to do because it would have been exactly what her mother would have done.

He caught her around the middle just as she launched herself at Belle her face contorting in rage.

"You bitch!" she yelled even as he fought to keep her away from Belle.

"You are a murdering monster bitch, you cheap lying slut, I should have killed you with bare hands, I should have killed you years ago, he was my Dad, he was mine and you took him from me you monster, how could you do that…you bitch! You have taken everything from me. He was my Dad…"

Her knees went out and she collapsed at Killian's side and he tried to press his kiss into her hair to let her know that she was not alone but she was sobbing, openly sobbing into his side and that felt like a knee to the balls and a knife to the heart at the same time.

Emma was looking horrified, Belle was crying and Leroy was looking like he would take anything including another curse to be anywhere but here.

But before he could suggest that they take this privately somewhere else before half of Storybrooke were live-tweeting this-or whatever the hell that was-Giselle straightened up, pushed him away with enough force that sent him staggering into Emma and with a speed like light pulled herself together. Her face was white, her eyes dark in her face and they alighted on Belle. Her expression beneath the mask of ice-queen he hated so much was one of so much hate it stole his breath away.

"I will have your stuff on the lawn with the rest of the trash when you get home, and I am having the locks changed on the house and the shop door, consider yourself out of a home and a job"

Belle gasped but Killian personally didn't know what else she was expecting.

"Giselle" Emma began in what she obviously thought was a placating tone but Giselle held up a hand and for once Emma fell silent.

"Deeds to the house and the shop are in my name, rent will be collected in my name and Leroy can spread the word anyone holding house to that monster slut over there can consider their rent up by one hundred percent. You want a war with me Belle so help you have one and I will not rest until you are dust beneath my shoe. Consider yourself warned. Pick up your trashy shit and considered yourself locked out of his account because like hell are you getting his money and his house and his shit including his dagger and you…" she turned to Killian who closed his eyes and willed himself to take what he knew was coming.

"Do not contact me again"

She crossed the small space wrenched the dagger of the table shot Belle another murderous look and turned towards the door.

And with that she was gone.

Belle collapsed into tears. Emma groaned. "Great, now she has the dagger, she'll have him over the town line if she can" she muttered. He noted with a small flicker of amusement she did not comment on what she had said to Belle about the house and the shop and about Belle's decision tonight.

"I lost her again" he said finally. Emma turned to take his hand.

"No" she said softly. "She'll come around"

"No, she won't" he said quietly. "Her mother wouldn't have done and neither will she"

He was right. Killian Jones wouldn't speak to his daughter again for another six weeks.

* * *

 **And there you go, hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you think and I will hopefully update soon.**

 **Next Chapter-As Giselle locks herself away for six weeks in which to grieve and plot revenge, Killian attempts to desperately reach his daughter and atone for his past sins, Gold plots to get back into town and it takes a surprising person to force Giselle to admit that she might not want to be alone (surprise and new point of view next chapter) **

**Enjoy.**


	36. Fury

**Hi, so here is another chapter. As I said before this arc is not Belle friendly as Giselle is very much a Daddy's girl and the whole Will thing was just destruction of the Wonderland story for me so please if you are a fan best to wait until Season 5.**

 **There is a new point of view in this story. It's not Belle but as someone asked don't worry that will be coming soon in Season 5.**

 **And Giselle gets a little bit of a makeover. I said in the beginning that Crystal Reed was the face cast for Giselle so if you want to know what she looks like type in Crystal Reed short hair and you'll see what I mean.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Also I am having trouble with my laptop (insert eye roll) and I hope it will be resolved soon but If not it might be a wait until the next chapter is posted please keep that in mind.**

 **There are only a few more chapters left of Season 4 as this is a short season.**

 **And let me know what you think please.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 36-Fury

As Giselle locks herself away for six weeks in which to grieve and plot revenge, Killian attempts to desperately reach his daughter and atone for his past sins, Gold plots to get back into town and it takes a surprising person to force Giselle to admit that she might not want to be alone (surprise and new point of view next chapter)

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge"_** **(Scott Adams)**

Storybrooke. Kilian's Perspective.

Six weeks. Six glorious weeks of peace. No monsters, no demons, no worries (well of the life-threatening kind) and more importantly no Dark One. No need for constantly trying not to fantasise about his revenge. No need to let Milah's ghost dictate what was happening in his life. No need to wake up in the night seeing that scaly hand clutched around her red beating heart.

But it also came with a downside. Because no Dark One meant no Giselle.

Killian had been right in thinking that she would not take this lying down. Belle had entered a tentative relationship with that completely uncouth idiot Will Scarlett who was still in love with his wife and trying to find his way back to her. Killian wasn't sure if it had gone past two people desperately in love with other people (and he was not one to judge either way) but when the news had leaked around the town he was fully prepared to see Giselle temper in full making her opinion known.

Only there was nothing.

She had gone home that night and simply not opened the door again for six weeks. The locks had been changed that night on both the shop and the house-the locksmith had confessed to being paid double-and when he had cut Belle a key they had found one of Gold's protection spells on both of them linking it to Giselle and only Giselle. Not even Regina could crack it, nor did she seem to want to. Heroes aside the Dark One had been a mentor too her and a friend for a time and while she didn't say it she made her disapproval over the whole situation known.

Belle had moved into the apartment in the library and hadn't said a word.

Several times Killian had gone over to the house in order to speak to her. he had slept outside it one night, but she had refused to open the door. Snow White made something called a pot pie and left it outside the house. The pie dish had been gone the next morning, so Killian supposed that she was eating.

But nothing was worse than Giselle's self-isolation. Hell, he had thought the fury was bad in the beginning, this was so much worse. He found himself stopping by the house every morning in order to knock on the door just to see if today was the day that she would open it too him.

Once he had confessed to the wooden door that he just wanted to hear her voice. She had switched her phone off and when Emma had made a comment about Giselle technically being a minor it had been Regina who had pointed out that Giselle was perhaps more capable of looking after herself than most of the town something neither his Swan nor he could disagree with.

But he missed her.

Gods he missed her.

And it didn't help his mind to know that she still had the dagger. She had refused entry to anyone in the house and still had hold of the most dark and powerful magical object known to man.

However again it had been Regina who had been the voice of reason. Gold must have had a safe, she pointed out, but they were getting worried. They were close Killian knew to finding a way to liberate the fairies from the hat and there was no way they could do it without the dagger. Regina had to be the one to wield it and Giselle was the only one who could give it to her.

No matter how much he relaxed he couldn't help but wonder what his now unstable, angry daughter was going to do next. She had inherited a combination of both his temper and Milah's, she had been raised by one of the most volatile monsters alive and Bae had hardly been a pacifist.

And this was Belle…no…he knew his spawn well…somewhere, somehow, someday she would exact her revenge.

And he hoped he would have the strength to stand by her when she did.

But for now, now he just missed his baby girl all over again.

* * *

Storybrooke. Leroy's Perspective.

Leroy hadn't really planned to go to the big house where Mr Gold had lived with his daughter for so long. It was strange, the curse had been gone for, so many years and it was still Mr Gold and still that 'big house' on the corner of the road. During the curse Mr Gold had been the strict, terrifying but somewhat fair (meaning he gave you warning if he was going to put the rent up even if he didn't accept your excuses for why it was late) and Giselle Jones had simply been Scarlett Gold the dark-haired girl that kept herself to herself in the corner with a coffee and a book.

It was hard to reconcile that girl with the one that was here now, and it was hard to reconcile what had taken place. Personally, Leroy had been shocked at the story surrounding Giselle and it took a lot to shock him and while the town was free of a menace and they could all sleep a lot sounder in their beds there was a good deal of muttering going around that perhaps a trial rather than a banishment would have been better for the family.

And Giselle Jones had not been seen in six weeks.

It was Granny that had passed him a lasagne and told him to take it to the Gold house. She gave him a look that promised him no bacon for a month if he didn't and that was why he was here standing in front of a door feeling (and no doubt looking) ridiculous.

And really someone had to do something because when the Captain wasn't with Emma then he was often or not slumped in a booth in Granny's with a glass of rum in his hand and that was just bringing down the décor. Not that Leroy cared you understand…but…well…Nova was trapped in that hat and they needed the dagger to…un-trap her. If that was even a word.

He knocked on the door once.

"Err…Giselle…Err…This is Leroy"

A voice in his head that sounded very much like the Evil Queen told him he sounded like an idiot which he knew was probably very true.

"Granny asked me to drop by some lasagne and tell you to stick in the oven for half an hour or until the cheese bubbles whichever one comes first…" he paused and then because apparently Leroy had not suffered enough decided to venture a suggestion.

"Look err…If you want to speak to someone impartial…if you…look what I'm trying to say is that if you want to talk I can listen…Hook, he misses you a lot and I know that Belle getting together with that newbie Will Scarlett must have pissed you off but…look I'm not gonna tell anyone what you told me."

Oh god he was sounding insane. There was a reason why Archie was the one that was paid to do this and not him. He dumped the lasagne on the floor.

"Sister, ain't nobody gonna shoot you for your feelings" he said finally in case that was the reason she was hiding herself away. Leroy didn't know much about Giselle's parentage other than a slightly reformed pirate, but he knew enough of Hook's reputation to know that he had been dangerous, and her mother had by all accounts been married to the Dark One before running off with a pirate and that…well…that took some balls in Leroy's book.

There was second when he thought about telling her he was leaving but he thought better of it.

However just as he was turning around to go down the steps to his car he heard a creaking noise and he realised with a sudden swooping in his stomach that she had actually opened the door.

Fuck.

Well there was nothing to do was there? He grabbed the lasagne, sent a quick plea that she didn't go all 'Baby Dark One Pirate Princess' on him or whatever it was that she was and then stepped inside the Dark One's house.

It was dusty and musty and dark, Leroy could see that Giselle had shut all the curtains. He peered into the dining room that was too grand for what he supposed had once been three people, all of the china had been smashed, photographs on the floor, half of Belle's library had their pages torn out and the books were stomped on, at least two chairs were smashed and the mirrors and the glass in the cabinets had shattered.

Boy he thought, she had really gone to town on this place.

Leroy really wished he wasn't impressed with the damage that the girl had done.

He moved into the sitting room dumping the lasagne on the hallway table and shutting the door behind him.

If he wasn't looking for her he wouldn't have seen her in the darkness, sat on the couch in what looked like a little nest of blankets. There were empty pizza boxes around and what looked like two empty vodka bottles, half a gin bottle gone, and the neck and shoulders of the rum gone as well.

Leroy winced as he took in Giselle. She was slumped watching him her hair lank, her eyes dead and she was wearing an old stained sweatshirt that came to her knees and socks that looked to well branded to be anyone's other than Golds. At least one suit jacket was on the side of the table and then suddenly a wave of anger flashed through Leroy just by looking at her.

Belle might have had the right in banishing him eventually but my God she had not thought about what this girl would go through. Hook would be horrified by this. Good God, Leroy was horrified by this.

Giselle reached for the bottle of gin poured herself a generous shot into the mug she had clasped in her hands and watched him with a dead expression.

"What do you want" she said finally. Her voice was gone, low and horse and broken, and Leroy guessed by the paleness of her skin and the red rings mixing in with the dark circles under her eyes it was because she had cried and screamed her voice away.

Fuck, had she really spent six weeks like this?

God it was a good thing she hadn't opened the door to Hook. Poor bastard would have probably had a fit.

He dithered upon answering her question. He could lie, but this was someone who had lived with the Dark One and therefore he was pretty sure she would read him like a book and throw him out. Therefore, he decided honesty was the best policy.

"Regina thinks she's found a way to get the fairies…to get Nova out of the hat and to do that she needs the dagger"

Giselle took a swig of gin.

"So I just hand the dagger over to my enemies then? Hand over the one ounce of protection I have? Dream on Leroy"

"Since when was Hook your enemy?"

Giselle shrugged.

"Your…The Dark One took his heart Giselle, he was going to kill Hook had Belle not turned up, you gonna tell me you were okay with that?"

"No" Giselle said after a pause. "But…well you wouldn't understand. You see him as a monster, I never could, and even after learning what he had done, I still loved him because I could reconcile myself to what he was. Because at the end of the day he was my father. Moreover, Belle, and Emma and Hook took that away from me bit by bit, everything I knew has gone, the security I had, the life I had and they all just sit around pretending to care, making me feel like a freak for loving someone unconditionally. You know Leroy I thought once in a bizarre kind of way that that might be the only thing that Belle and I ever had in common. That we could see past what he was doing and could stand by him because we knew, he would not let anything happen to us. I thought she knew he wouldn't change at least not all of himself when she walked down the aisle with him and now she's tossed him aside and found someone according to you, younger and in more need of saving"

She took another gulp finished off her mug and then tipped the last of the bottle in again. Leroy sighed.

"I know sister," he said heavily because he did. He too had thought the Dark One invincible. He had never truly believed he would allow himself to be captured that easily in the Enchanted Forest and he had thought that Belle knew what she was getting into. In addition, he remembered what Giselle had been like when she had seen Gold go both times now. His heart could not help but go out to her soft old thing that he was.

"He's not coming back," Giselle said looking at him her eyes over bright for the first time in the entire conversation. "Everything's a mess and I have nobody at my back…and don't say Hook because you and I both know he is Emma's man through and through"

"He was your mother's man first," Leroy said quietly. Giselle stared at him and for once, he knew he had grabbed her attention. "He was your man too. He is your Dad and yeah he might be all smiles and kisses with Emma but he misses you like hell"

Giselle snorted once drinking deeply again and Leroy had honestly had enough because Giselle was seventeen not seventy and certainly not broken enough to drink herself to death. With a firm grip he pulled the mug out of her hand and dusted the two bottles away.

"You know what I think you should do sister?" Moreover, gods help him he knew this was going to come back one day and kick him in the ass but she looked so defeated he could not help himself.

"I think you should get off your backside and fight. Fight to be taken seriously in this town, fight to be a real contender. Fight to get that dagger back into your possession if that is what you want. You have a chance now to be someone outside of Gold's control and that might seem scary but you and I both know you did it before and that was when you were younger and did not have the strength that you do now. Because right now sitting inside your house and drinking yourself to death is letting, the people of this town pity and degrade you as some stupid child who was manipulated by the Dark One, another victim of his crimes. And I will tell you right now the woman I knew who went to confront Captain Hook twice, who went to Neverland and battled Lost Boys and who shot flying monkeys out of the sky didn't have time for that shit"

Giselle stared at him for a long moment and it seemed to Leroy that she was coming to an almighty decision in her head about whether or not she had it in her for another fight, she stared at her hands for a second and then finally she nodded.

Leroy breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm gonna stay here for a while and clean up this place you go take a shower and get into some clean clothes, I'll have this lasagne on the table when you come down"

"I hid the dagger you know" Giselle said a hint of a smile on her face.

Leroy grinned at the normalcy of her tone.

"Didn't expect anything less sister. Now go, I'll take one of these expensive bottles of whiskey as pavement for my good deed of the month"

And this time Giselle Jones really did smile.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Next Day. Killian's Perspective.

They had finally found a way to atone for the deeds that he had committed under the Dark One's control and while Emma tried to assure him it wasn't his fault he could not help but feel relieved by the idea that some good was going to come out of the last few weeks.

However, they still had one snag; they were in Regina's office. She, the Charming's, Emma and Belle and it was clear that they would be in here for a while until they managed to confront the problem in the room. Giselle had the dagger, they needed it and Giselle had locked herself a way so far in herself that it was almost impossible to get to her. Again.

The Charming's and Belle were all for reason though Killian knew that that would not work. Giselle was too angry, too hurt and far too much Milah's daughter to allow this to stand. Regina was all for brute force and Killian refused to let that happen. Even Emma was leaning towards making Giselle give up the dagger and he wasn't sure if he could stand making the decision between Emma and Giselle because he was pretty sure he knew in his heart of hearts who that was going to be.

Gods the things parents did for their children. He had never experienced a bond like this before. Even when Giselle was pushing him away, he knew one click of her fingers and he would drop everything and be there by her side.

"Anyway" Regina was saying and he realised that she was looking at him. Forcing himself to focus on the conversation, he looked at her.

"Any ideas on how to manage that daughter of yours?"

He was about to open his mouth-though what he was about to say he did not know because at that moment the door swept open and Giselle stepped in looking cool and collected like she had been gone a day and not nearly two months.

Killian could not help but gaze at her and then he realised what was different about her. Gone was Giselle's dark hair, she had cut it shorter so it was just brushing her coat which was black and tucked in tightly around her. She was wearing a white dress that clinched in the waist with a belt and dark heals and she looked a little too much like a young Regina for Killian's peace of mind. She sat down in the chair at the desk and folded her legs around her as if this was her office and then she looked up at Regina with such a polite smile on her face that still somehow seemed to show distain for this kind of proceedings.

"You wished to see me?" she asked politely. Regina sat down behind her desk and Killian looked at the Queen then. She was not staring at Giselle he realised with a jolt of appreciation, as if she was the Dark One's daughter-she was staring at her as if she was an equal, a power player in this great game.

Which he supposed was what his daughter was now.

"You cut your hair" Belle stated.

Giselle didn't rise to the bait, didn't even turn her head, in fact she gave no knowledge that she had even heard Belle speak or that she was in the room. In truth the new haircut looked good on her, it emphasised the cheekbones in her face and the edges of her jaw. He would miss the dark locks he knew but…well…hair grew back.

"Yes" Regina said in the moment of silence. "We need the dagger"

"To rescue the fairies I know" Giselle said smiling pleasantly "And you can have it…only when you are done with it I will be taking it and it will remain in my keeping"

Snow White shook her head and Killian could not blame her because the last person he wanted to have control of the most dangerous magical object in the world was his emotionally unstable daughter.

Regina snorted. "How do I trust you with it?" she said finally. Giselle smiled. "The same way we trust you not to turn back to the Evil Queen, or the same way we trust Belle over there to keep her legs shut…oh no wait we don't…that's because Will Scarlett is around and…" she turned to Belle and the smirk on her face was so innocent it was dangerous. "A married man grieving his wife? Really, Darling? I'd say have some class but…" she looked Belle up and down who blushed painfully red and looked away and then turned her back on her.

It was a magnificent insult and worthy Killian admitted to himself, of her mother. Regina smoothed her expression as Giselle's eyes turned to her.

"Faith"

Regina leaned back in her chair and Killian knew that Emma could have used her own magic to set the room on fire and nothing would have stopped the mental conversation that was going on between the woman who had been taught by Rumpelstiltskin and the woman who had considered him a father.

"Very well" Regina said leaning back in her chair. Giselle smiled and stood up smoothing her coat down and reaching for her bag. She patted her now short hair.

"I'll see you when you text me the address with the dagger" she said and then she turned to face him, her face had lost that smooth mask he so detested and smiled at him and this time it was a genuine smile.

"You wanna go get some coffee and talk?" she said finally and Killian took that to mean his daughter was offering him an olive branch. He nodded.

"Aye darling" he said standing up. Sometime later he would learn of the Chernabog, he would learn of the three Queens of Darkness, or at least the two at the gates and he would learn about what Leroy had done with his daughter-and he would have to buy the dwarf more than one pint to make up for it-but for now he was with his daughter.

For now, that was enough.

* * *

 **And there we go, please read and review.**

 **Next Chapter-As Gold consolidates his major plan Giselle realizes that for once she has to put herself first. Killian on the other hand is sucked into a new danger that will change his and Emma's relationship for good. **


	37. A Mind With A Heart Of It's Own

**Hi so here is another chapter this one doesn't have much action in it but I promise the next one will.**

 **There will probably be a brief lull In updating just due to work at Christmas but I promise you that I will do a mass update of two or three chapters before Christmas. I hope to have all of Season 4 done before 2018 but that might be a pipe dream at this point.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 37-A Mind With A Heart Of It's Own

As Gold consolidates his major plan Giselle realises that for once she has to put herself first. Killian on the other hand is sucked into a new danger that will change his and Emma relationship for good.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss the abyss gazes also into you"_** **(Friedrich Nietzsche)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

It was like being born anew.

For six weeks she had wallowed in misery, wondering how on earth she was going to manage when her father had been banished and then she remembered that she had managed once before. Ok so that had almost seen Killian…no her other Dad killed but she had pulled herself back from the brink many times before.

Only now things were different because Giselle by her own admission was a little older, a little wiser and a little more aware of what was going on.

The morning they were supposed to have coffee was ruined by the whole monster thing and then when Giselle had tried to meet her Dad for dinner she had ran into Will Scarlett in front of the library which was where she believed Belle had called her home now and that had spoiled the whole idea of pizza with the Charming's but as she sat in front of her bedroom mirror the next morning she realised something, something so potent it made her take pause and really look at herself.

She realised then…well if she was being honest with herself she realised somewhere around the third week that she had sat on the couch and finished the second vodka bottle that she needed to make her own way in the world. She was forced to consider what this new life would be like. A part of her knew that there was no real chance that her father was really gone, he might be in a Land Without Magic right now but she knew he would find his way back, weather it was today, tomorrow or in ten years she knew he would be back and then once again she would have to choose a side.

All her life she had taken her father's side. Even when Killian had become a steady factor in her life she had always taken the Dark One's side it was a given, so much so she was barely considered a player in the game. And this was a game. This was a game of chess or whatever and she was firmly in one place.

Moreover during the six weeks that she locked herself away she began to realise just what power was, what consolidating it behind you meant. Oh she didn't love it as much as her father did that was for sure but she loved the feeling of power when she walked into that room and dictated terms to the heroes.

She wasn't a hero. Giselle didn't think she was a villain but she knew enough about herself to know she wasn't a hero. Nor did she want to be. She was, she decided in the grey area and if there wasn't a grey area between hero and villain before now then she had just invented it.

She wasn't alone anymore she realised that day she decided to get her hair cut. She had people well really one that she could trust that would support her. The thing that had made the last time she had been totally and completely alone, not even Edmund had known her identity and she knew that she would have never told him.

There was a moment where she stared at herself and then she got dressed. She dressed with a newfound wardrobe that she had never really had before. She dressed in a tight fitting blue dress that came to her knees. It was backless and something that Regina would wear she supposed…well…If Regina was nearing seventeen that is.

She decided to keep her boots, she wasn't totally changing after all.

She had taken to keeping the dagger with her at all times, she hadn't really needed to keep it under lock and key but she had tugged it out of Regina's hands once before and she didn't really trust Regina not to sneak in and try to steal it. Magic would prevent her from taking it with her own magic but the heroes she knew from watching them both underestimated her and were not above a bit of breaking and entering to get what they wanted.

She opened up the shop which she did every weekend now and then sat on her father's stool checking the books and waited without fail for some poor disgruntled visitor desperate to see if Giselle Jones would lower his rent now her father was gone.

The doorbell rattled and her Dad came in. he still the customary sweep of the place with his eyes like he was afraid that her father was going to leap out of the shadows but he was carrying what looked like two coffees and a brown paper bag so she supposed impending death wasn't coming for them just yet.

"Hey" she said not looking up.

"Hello" he said with the slight nervous hitch to his voice. She couldn't blame him not really. They had been getting along really well and then in the space of one night the whole thing had gone up in the air and she had gone off the grid for six weeks.

"Look" she said deciding to get straight to the point. She was free to speak her mind though she supposed she had always done that-but this felt different and she was damn well gonna use it.

"I get that we were gonna meet up but I saw Will what's his face and the Bitch-Bookworm creating a disgusting display of affection in front of the library and I wasn't in the mood for it so I'm sorry"

"Fair enough" was the response.

Fuck.

Somehow she was beginning to think that her Dad was taking all she was giving and not pushing for more. For her Dad…her biological Dad that felt wrong, her father was the one she had come to take that attitude from.

Instead she took a deep breath and focused on the brown paper bag he was holding loosely in his hand.

"What's that?" she asked

"Grilled Cheese…err…somewhere down the line Emma converted me and…you said you wanted to talk over coffee"

Giselle smiled at his nerves.

"Cool" she said standing up. "Let me get you a chair"

She was three mouthfuls in when she decided to cut to the chase.

"Look I…I didn't know he had taken your heart. You know that right? I wouldn't have condoned it…I mean I really wouldn't have"

Her Dad's muscles all seemed to relax at once and with a horrible sense of shame almost Giselle realised that he hadn't known that, at least not for sure. He must have been so sure that she was loyal to the Dark One no matter what.

Had she been?

Really?

Oh god she was too sober to second guess herself right now. And she was trying to quit the booze because she had spent six weeks near as damn it self-medicating her pain and misery away and she knew that that was unhealthy. Plus there was the fact that she was…well…technically underage. Though she wasn't actually sure if that was a law here anymore when the average of most high school students was actually thirty.

"Well anyway" he said awkwardly as if he too didn't want to discuss that night where their lives had changed and not all for the better.

"I did not believe that you had…and…I would not have pushed for banishment had I been asked. Or death, while I personally would have liked it I know what the bastard meant to you"

Giselle nodded sitting back in her chair and looking at him.

"I'm not going to forgive Belle" she said finally.

Her Dad nodded. "I thought as much" he said honestly. "So I will not discuss it with you then"

She nodded because to be honest she did not have it in her to discuss Belle right now.

"He's going to come back" she decided going to the crux of the matter "Whether it's today, tomorrow or in ten years it doesn't matter. And when he does it's all in the air again so I don't want to think about it, I want to live in the here and now…I want a relationship with you because unlike the first time I was alone I know you now. I know you wouldn't hurt me. So" she ran a hand through her now shorter hair.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is do you wanna do this again? Start over, clean slate or whatever the saying is and see where it leaves us?"

Her Dad smiled at her then and with a pang Giselle realised that it was her smile smiling back at her, she did that thing with the corner of her mouth when she was happy. How much had she truly not looked for even when she had said she had been open for a relationship?

"Ok darling" he said finally. "But let's be honest with each other. And…and if he does come back…don't give him the dagger, come to me and if needs be we can give it to him together, I don't want you running off into the woods to deal with him because you think that you have a lifetime of experience and I don't want you locking yourself away anymore. Truth be told…I did not like it the last time"

Giselle thought that perhaps that was an understatement but she let it slide.

"Alright" she said conceding. The points were fair after all and she had made more than her fair share of mistakes over the years.

"But you have to be honest with me too. No more lies about Emma or your past or things you don't want to disclose to me, no more running off into the forest to confront Snow Queens. And if he does come back and you have a run in with him I expect you to come to me and I can tell you how to play him. I have a lifetime of knowledge more so than Belle on how to play the Dark One. That, calculation and a little bit of love on his part might be how I survived for all those years"

She had never admitted that until now though she supposed it must be true as well. Oh she still loved him, would still follow him, would still have his back when nobody else would but she could now see the differences between him and Killian. Her Dad had fought none stop to be worthy of her love and trust and her father on the other hand had always expected it to be there.

Now she was forging her path on this shitty road. If Rumple wanted her help then he was going to have to give her a reason other than blind faith. Really? What had he thought she was anyway? A charming?

"Deal" her Dad said gently and Giselle smiled and for once decided to be even bolder and hold out her hand. He took it and there in the cold and dank shop Giselle, could almost believe that they were trying and…dare she say it…should her father not come back to Storybrooke, or should he come back later rather than sooner…perhaps she could be happy without him.

Her Dad sighed and then grinned. "Well darling if we're going to be honest with each other I should tell you Cruella and Ursula entered town last night"

And just like that Giselle knew that if her father wasn't in town already he was plotting his return sooner rather than later.

However, Giselle hadn't been kidding when she said she wasn't going to give the dagger over without a bloody good reason.

Moreover she refused to admit defeat and hand it in to Emma.

Not until she had a very good reason to anyway.

* * *

Storybrooke. That Afternoon. Killian's Perspective.

He slipped into the booth feeling…lighter than he had done in weeks.

He and Giselle had, had a long talk and there was something in his daughter's eyes and the way she was now holding herself that made him think that there was a chance that they could have a proper father and daughter relationship. Oh what they had, had before had been nothing to turn his nose up at but she seemed serious this time and Killian was too desperate and too happy to take her at nothing but her word.

Her story about Cruella and Ursula matched up to the one Belle had given them and there was no way the Dark One would tell a fourteen year old any more than that, and also she had conceded to hand of the dagger as soon as she had proof that the Dark One was back which Killian supposed was more than fair and more than what they going to get yesterday.

"Hey" said a voice to his left and he turned to see Swan smiling at him. It had been a day of revelations all round and while he had not yet divulged his history with Ursula he had decided that if Giselle was willing to try then he should. Perhaps not with Emma not right now but certainly with his daughter.

"Hello" he said gently curving a hand around her waist. This relationship with Swan was so more dangerous to his heart than the one with Milah. He had survived losing Milah-alright he had lost himself along the way and through the skin of his teeth to boot, but he knew that he would not stand losing Emma Swan. That would cripple him.

And that was what on some nights frightened him.

"I take it your talk with Giselle went well?"

"Very" he smiled feeling warm, he decided to disclose the one thing that was keeping him feeling warm all over even on a cold night such as this one. "I think…I think she might be considering moving out of that house and in with me…I haven't asked her yet or looked for a place but…I feel confident in asking her and that is no small thing"

Emma beamed at him. "That's wonderful," she said and she kissed him once light on the lips. She pulled back before he could deepen the kiss and muttered something about two stiff rums to celebrate.

Killian smiled watching her go. Finally, things were looking up.

If he had turned around right there and then, he would have seen the shadowy figure of the Dark One watching with that half smile on his face that had never meant any good to anyone. However, he did not and Killian Jones had no idea that that night was the last golden night of peace he would have before the entirety of his life would be ripped apart, never to be the same.

* * *

 **This ending also leads us up to Season 5 as we know the events of Season 4 and how Gold's return plays into them.**

 **Next Chapter-As Gold and Giselle battle it out, the former realises that absolute loyalty is perhaps not a given anymore and the latter realises that a bigger battle is at play. Meanwhile Giselle and Killian both learn a secret that the Charming's have been keeping, Regina and Giselle play a game that might have far lasting consequences and Operation Mongoose is shared between Aunt and Nephew.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	38. Loyalty Forever And Almost Always

**Hi, so here is the next chapter, I should be posting the two last chapters of season 4 before Christmas and hopefully the first chapter of Season 5. So please enjoy this chapter was a long time coming.**

 **Don't worry just because Giselle is choosing to support Killian against her father doesn't mean the relationship is dead. Season 5 sees more of her relationship with Killian but we do get some nice moments with everyone else.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 38-Loyalty Forever And Almost Always

As Gold and Giselle battle it out, the former realises that absolute loyalty is perhaps not a given anymore and the latter realises that a bigger battle is at play. Meanwhile Giselle and Killian both learn a secret that the Charming's have been keeping, Regina and Giselle play a game that might have far lasting consequences and Operation Mongoose is shared between Aunt and Nephew **.**

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _The strength of the family, like the strength of an army, is in it's loyalty to each other"_** **(Mario Puzo)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

For a moment, for a glorious moment she had thought that she might have gotten away with it. Certainly, things seemed to be better and as she opened her eyes that morning she was so deliciously sleepy that she forgot what she already knew. She was a good looking sixteen-year-old girl nearing seventeen and she was in command of a good fortune, a good amount of power, a good amount of skin the game that was Storybrooke and a house all of her own. She was a single woman in control of her life.

Now to anyone that had grown up in the normal world that might have been a normal thing to be, but Giselle was a girl from the Enchanted Forest and she damn well knew it. There the only women that had made names for themselves had been the Evil Queen (and that really said it all didn't it?) and Snow White (and a part of Giselle knew that people had only really started to talk about her winning as a reality when she had hooked up with her husband). Now there were real women in this game and Giselle was one of them, and she was alone to boot which meant that she could comfortably navigate the grey area without wondering if she would ever have to be controlled or put in a position when she had to choose between her father and her…well…her father.

And of course, in that moment when she woke up and stared at the ceiling, as she got dressed into her black flowered skirt with flowers on it that was short one side and flowed lower and her pale grey blouse. She had taken to dressing more formally know she was running a business and she felt a small pang of amusement mixed in with the usual smatter of pain that she still felt whenever she thought of her adopted father.

She climbed down the stairs turned into the kitchen and then dropped her bag on the floor in shock.

Because standing there at the kitchen table drinking from a cup of coffee like he had never left, was her father. The Dark One.

For a second Giselle blinked. The scene was so ordinary that half of her instantly wanted to tell him that if he finished a pot of coffee, the polite thing was to start a new one, like she had done nearly every morning for at least the last two decades.

"How the hell did you get back?" she demanded shock making her tone…less than welcoming.

Her father shot her a look over his coffee mug that was half appraising and half amused.

"Nice hair" he said finally. "And thank the gods, those hideous jeans have gone with more holes in them than fabric"

"Belle is not moving back in here while I live here if that's what you're here for" she said cutting across him. While she was sure he was a hallucination like he was with the first curse she wasn't taking any chances.

Her Father's expression flickered to distain, to hurt and then finally to his cool mask of detachment.

"No" he said coolly "She appears to have moved on"

And that told her all she needed to know. He knew about Will.

A part of her told her other half sternly that she shouldn't be so happy inside that her father's marriage was crumbling but the part of her that had missed him so much, that had grieved the woman and the place that Belle had so easily took was smirking. With Belle gone Giselle might have a real chance of getting some skin in the game when it came to the Dark One. Oh she wasn't expecting a complete change around but she was expecting some sort of peace where she didn't have to choose sides. With Belle constantly pushing for him to be good she had only pushed him the other way and Giselle understood that in a way that nobody else did.

"I take it you have the dagger" she said pouring herself a cup of coffee and taking a seat. Her father shot her a rather unimpressed look.

"I made the spell that surrounds this house sweetheart. I also made the spell surrounding the dagger and I made the spell to take it back. Though I commend you for not giving it to Regina, how you did that I don't know"

"I told her" Giselle said calmly taking a sip. Her father snorted very quietly.

"I would have loved to have seen that" he said finally. "Also why is my liquor cabinet half drained and my best suit jacket crumpled into a ball? Tom Ford is not cheap"

Giselle paused. "I had a binge when I thought you were gone. Nearly clawed the cow's face of and then I threw her out and I mean it, she doesn't move in here while I am. God knows Killian will offer me a place to live in a heartbeat"

Her father snorted again.

"And I suppose you're going to tell him I'm back" he said casually.

Giselle didn't so much as flinch a fact that she was proud of.

"Yep" she said taking a sip.

Her father shot a look that was for a second shocked before he covered it with his usual mask of unconcern. But Giselle understood. He had assumed like Killian had that she would stand by him despite everything and now he was facing the first signs of rebellion from perhaps his only ally and it had caught him unawares.

"He probably knows already" he said casually and Giselle took that to mean the rumours of Maleficent resurfacing were true after all.

"That was a dick move you did taking his heart" she said quietly.

Her father paused looking at her through his frank gaze.

"Sometimes" he said casually. "I make mistakes, take a good look at this one because it's my only one"

And that Giselle took it was the closest thing to an apology that she was going to get.

She stood up. Her father straightened. There was no two ways about it. He was going to do what he was going to do with the dagger and she would continue to stay in her grey area until it became clear there was a winning side. The good news about this was that she had a father in each camp and she was sure that both of them loved her.

It wasn't much to cling to but it was something and it was all she had right now.

"I'm glad your back" she said finally and then her father crossed the room and hugged her.

They stayed like that for a long time and Giselle got the impression that for the first time her father had missed her too. That perhaps she had not always been a pawn in a larger game of revenge but he had come to love her too. Perhaps it was messed up and destructive kinds of love but Giselle understood from the age of six that, that was all the love he had to give, her mother, her brother, Cora, Hook and Belle had in their own different ways chipped away at the love he had until it was nothing but blackness and mistakes and loyalty.

They pulled apart.

"Shall I see you tonight?" she asked as if it was a normal school day.

Her father considered. "No" he said finally. "I'll take to the woods but you can ring me and I'll ring you from time to time. Also watch your back. The Charming's might right now in their desperation use you to get to me"

Giselle didn't know exactly what that meant but she sure as hell understood a warning when he was giving her one. Deciding it was safe not to ask she turned and walked out the door. But for the first time she was suddenly aware acutely that she was worried about something happening when she turned her back.

Once upon a time she might have blamed this new-fangled fear on Killian, on her Dad and his constant presence that seemed to speak (without saying the words) but now she felt as if she was a little older, a little wiser, and a little less loyal.

* * *

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective. Later That Same Day.

They had known the minute that Regina had come back from her undercover operation that the Dark One was back. For Emma and the Charming's and certainly for Belle it was a shock. For Killian not so much and for Regina it was with a tired resignation, but he could confidently say when Emma turned her gaze to him that he didn't know if Giselle knew because in the past two days he hadn't had a chance to speak to her.

Emma regarded him for a second and then sighed.

"Ok then" she said with the air of a woman preparing herself for the worst.

"Then we have to go speak to Giselle and get that dagger off her. And we have to get it off her and we need to do it by any means necessary"

Killian started. Never in his entire time of knowing her had he seen Emma go down the force route and it didn't sit with him, at least not with his daughter who he knew could give as good as she got. Emma might have magic on her side, but Giselle had a lifetime of understanding people who had the same gift she did and a strong streak that was wholly her mothers. Somehow, he really did not want to be around when they both went at each other. Somethings were just easier not to imagine

He missed the look that passed through the Charming's and had he picked up on it he would have seen something almost like guilt and most especially fear. However, he did not and when he spoke he tried to say all the things that he didn't want to say in his tone. Which was like hell was Emma hurting his daughter. He loved Emma but a father's love he had known from all those nights wondering if she was alive or dead, clearly told him and what he hoped everyone else that he was on her side first and foremost.

"Nobody is forcing Giselle to do anything" he said quietly. Emma didn't so much as glance at him she was already out of the diner her blonde hair flying and Killian resisted the urge to roll his eyes with increasing difficulty. Something was wrong, had been wrong for a long time he could tell. something had changed in his girlfriend as soon as the Queens of Darkness had entered the town. It was like a clock ticking down and Killian couldn't do anything to stop it because he didn't know what was going on.

But he followed Emma out of the diner and down the road, Belle's heels clacking as she struggled to keep up with them and the Charming's bringing up the rear.

He struggled to keep up with her and she all put threw the door to Gold's shop of it's hinges when she stormed in. Giselle was not there, she came out of the back looking conflicted and tired and drawn and Killian somehow knew that whatever Emma wanted, the dagger or answers, she wasn't going to get.

"Your father is back" Emma said without flinching.

"Yeah I know" Giselle said folding herself onto the stool with a natural grace. She shot them all a long look from her unreadable eyes and Killian saw her mouth curl around the edges when she saw Belle who was thankfully looking round the shop. She was clearly looking for any kind of validation that the girl who had taken over her livelihood had messed it up in any way and from the annoyed expression on Belle's face and flicker of triumph in Giselle's eyes as she snapped her face back to Emma showed Killian that the former had found nothing to complain about…and the latter had noticed.

"You know?" Snow White asked, and she stared at Killian for a second. He could try and pretend that he was surprised that the bastard had come to Giselle first, but he was too tired and he was clinging to hope that she had only found out this morning and had not yet played into his hands.

Giselle nodded. "Nice little surprise that was coming downstairs to see him in the house making coffee in the kitchen like the last six weeks never happen" the barb in her voice was clear but Killian was for once not sure of who it was directed at.

"We need the dagger, we have creditable proof that he's working with Ursula, Cruella and Maleficent, so right now I don't care about your lines or wherever the hell you draw them right now I care about keeping that dagger the hell away from Gold for as far as I can"

There was a flicker of something almost like amusement on Giselle's face again and this time when she smiled it was if she was relaying a conversation in her head. Something between her and Emma.

"I don't have it" she said finally. "He took it this morning"

"You gave it too him?" he shouted wildly. Giselle flashed him a look that was half concern and half surprise. Killian realised that his hook was rather close to the glass cases as if he was going to smash them open in sheer rage. He had not asked for much had he? If she had given the dagger too him…

"Oh, for fucks sake no I didn't give it to him" Giselle said waspishly reading his mind in that disturbing way Milah used to do.

"But it's his house and his magic, he's perfectly capable of walking to the safe and taking it" she shook her head flicking her eyes down to her nails to show her complete lack of interest in what Emma was saying but there was something off about her. She was acting like she was…almost ashamed of what was happening.

"This" Emma said pointing her finger at Giselle. "This is the reason why I wanted the dagger away from you"

Giselle raised an eyebrow.

"I" she said slowly and carefully so there was no way that Emma could mishear her, "Did what I could. I didn't trust you then and I still struggle to trust you now. You can blame me but this wouldn't have happened if my father hadn't been sent over the town line and for that we all know the blame lies with someone in this room and it isn't me"

And with that she turned back to the chair she was sat on, opened up the ledger and did a wonderful job of pretending that she didn't care that Emma looked close to committing murder.

"Do you know what his plans are?" David asked finally.

"No" Giselle said without flinching. "He wouldn't tell me, he knows I'd tell Dad"

The simplicity of that sentence, of that moniker still managed to make his breath catch in his throat and a pleased little smile (despite the circumstances) came to his face.

Somehow, he thought that for once in the battle for his daughter, he might be the one winning.

That was almost worth it, that was what he clung too when three days later he learnt the truth about what Gold was really doing with the three woman he groomed and polished to become empresses of darkness…

And who he was plotting against.

* * *

Storybrooke. A Week or So Later. Giselle's Perspective.

It was odd. This co habiting when her father spent days in the forest and the nights that he spent once or twice a week with her. It was a half relationship and half a stranger living in the house and for the first time Giselle felt almost…strange when she thought about coming home to her father and his plots and his plans and where her place was.

It seemed like her independence in those weeks when she was alone she had learnt that she didn't need to be anyone's person, to be on anyone's side. Oh, her loyalty was not that unshakable. There was a very good chance she knew that when whatever it was he was doing went inevitably to shit then she would be on his side, but for the first time In, her life she had not discounted the possibility that she would choose Killian.

And she suspected that for the first time in decades of unshakable loyalty her father had realised that as well.

All in all, it made for an…interesting home life.

But before she could ponder over that she was interrupted by Henry, the boy that had both exasperated her and commanded a surprising love in her. god knows Giselle was not a sentimental woman, overcome by her emotions but Henry was different. There had always been something about Bae's boy that had commanded these feelings in her and it was as irritating as it was surprising.

"Hey" he said sliding into the chair next to her when she was working over the accounts to the shop. While her father had been plotting (prior to his banishment) he had let Belle manage most things and while Giselle was no mathematician she had no idea what the other woman had been doing because there was no sense to it. To the books, to the plots, to Storybrooke sometimes. No sense to any of it.

Instead she decided to put down her books and stare at Henry with what she hoped was an amused expression that didn't betray how tired she was of interruptions whenever she finally alone.

"So, Mom says that you should know she's not pulling punches if Grandpa comes swinging"

Giselle closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them. "Sounds like Emma" she said finally. "But I don't know what his plan is, and I doubt that he'd tell me right now"

Henry paused. "You know I never did apologise did I?" he asked, and Giselle stared at him in surprise. As far as she had known Henry didn't apologise for anything, he had been raised by a woman who never had and had been given life to by two people who had in all the time that Giselle had known them not apologised. Or at least not to her.

"For what?" she said finally.

"For telling everyone about your Dad, about your story. I didn't realise that it was a breech of your privacy back then but…but know I know so…so I'm sorry Scarlett"

The use of the name that he had called her for nearly ten years made her smile and again she felt feeling…like her brother was here with her because she was now for the first time realising how much Henry did look like him.

"Thank you, Henry," she said finally.

"I want us to be friends" Henry said in a rush. "I know what it's like to be caught between two parents you love"

Giselle paused. He did in truth she could not deny that, but there was something different with Henry. She supposed that the obvious thing was that Regina had changed. Regina had been a pawn in her father's game, he had needed someone to cast his curse and Giselle had always suspected from the way that her father was (long before Belle) whenever she had visited that there was something more…though she had been ten the last time, so she didn't exactly bring it up at dinner. But Regina had offered to change for her son and Giselle had never asked her father to change because unlike Henry she knew that it was not possible. There was no point in asking her father to change because he wasn't going to do that. All his motivation to change had died when Henry's father did, and she suspected that Belle had thought that she would have been enough.

It was quite sad really. But Giselle still maintained that Belle had known what she was getting into.

"Ok" she said finally because Henry might be getting older now, but no way was he old enough to understand the events that had defined the man she still loved as a father and yet was now beginning to question for the first time.

"So" she said finally. "What can I help you with Henry?"

"I want to tell you about something" Henry said beaming looking like the little kid with the storybook who had wanted Giselle to read to him when she was still Scarlett Gold and Regina would just assume she would babysit for him.

"I want to tell you about Operation Mongoose"

And that was when Giselle felt that feeling of doom that came when someone with that look of bright hope that had a familiar relationship with the Charming's started explaining his plan.

Later that night she walked home feeling tired, so bone tired of just everything and all she wanted to do was to curl up underneath the covers and wish away the (now) summer until all she could do was get to the end of this horrible year.

Her father was already sat with his scotch at the table, the dagger in front of him he looked troubled. Giselle could see him in the corner of the window and she dithered for a second on the doorstep to her own house. This was her home, she was not running away from it but something about her father's malicious plots, the way she always seemed to be caught in the middle of them and the way that Killian had looked at her when he she had categorically denied knowing about his heart made her pause. Tonight, she decided she couldn't deal with it. Tonight, she wanted to be with the one parent she truly, whole heartedly, without a shadow of a doubt believed loved her unconditionally to open the door and accept whatever bullshit excuse she could come up with.

And that had been she know knew, from the start. Killian.

Granny kept the backdoor unlocked for her patrons and Giselle slipped up the stairs until she found Killian's room. He opened it on the first knock and started at her.

"I need a place to stay and I just…not tonight" she finished lamely trying to get across what had happened, how tired she was, how emotionally exhausted she was and how she needed to sleep without wondering if one day both of her fathers would make good on their promise to kill the other one.

Her Dad stared at her for a long time or what felt like it and then opened the door wider, so she could come in.

"Of course, darling" he said and then he preceded to tuck her into bed when she was ready even though it meant he was sleeping on the floor. He stayed there watching her and she watching him in the dark until her eyelids closed and she fell into the mind-numbing abyss that was sleep.

The next morning, he would tell her about Ursula, about the darkness surrounding Emma, he would tell her about how he had told Emma at least half of his feelings and he would tell her that things were about to get worse.

But then her father would do the one thing that she could never forgive.

He would bring back Zelena.

And that…that was something that Giselle might find impossible to give.

Either way. It would be months before she slept in her old big house again.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-As Giselle officially joins the Charming's on the quest to find the heroes she finds herself torn between her father who wants to change the world in order to gain everything he's ever wanted and her Dad who is slowly but surely falling in love with someone knew Giselle knows is turning dark.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	39. The Author

**Hi so here is another chapter, i apologise for the length but i was busy with both a horrible essay and a horrible cold so therefore a lot of my writing was set back.**

 **This chapter is called The Author but generally deals with the relationship with Killian and Giselle so therefore the Author is only mentioned once or twice-however as i have said i did struggle horribly watching Season 4 so you can only imagine how hard it is to write. I think out of all of the series (1-6) this season was the weakest.**

 **There is only one more chapter of this series and i hope to have that published between Christmas and New Year but that being said anything could happen.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **And i wish you a very Merry Christmas and a safe one at that and if i don't publish before that, a very happy New Year**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 39-The Author

As Giselle officially joins the Charming's on the quest to find the heroes she finds herself torn between her father who wants to change the world in order to gain everything he's ever wanted and her Dad who is slowly but surely falling in love with someone knew Giselle knows is turning dark.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Every journey into the past is complicated by delusions, false memories, false naming of real events"_** **(Adrienne Rich)**

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective

Sometimes he couldn't believe that he was here. That Giselle had for all attempts and purposes chosen a side and that side was his. He thought about it as they hunted Ursula, as they hunted Cruella and as they found out about Zelena. Giselle had been sat at the island table when she had been told as some sort of an afterthought that the woman that had murdered her brother was in alliance with her father and Killian couldn't help the flicker of his eyes to where she was sitting. To her credit she didn't betray anything that Regina-as dangerous as she was could pick up on but her face went a little whiter and she had to look away least she say something.

He causally wandered over to her and placed a hand on top of hers while she worked to control her emotions over the brother that had in his own way loved her but never got a chance to know her and from what he suspected vice versa. She did not gaze at him but her hand linked with his and he allowed the touch to be what he hoped to be a grounding mechanism.

When she turned around a few seconds later to see Regina, Snow and Emma's gaze-a dangerous trio of suspicion, pity and the hard gaze now permanently etched upon Swan's face with her own controlled expression that was not as mask like as it was before. She was showing he realised some emotion in front of the people that she had considered for a long time to be on opposite sides with her father and while it wasn't much the traitorous part of his hear that had never learnt it's lesson all those years ago-wanted it to be because of him.

Regina spelled out her plan that she should go and find Robin and warn him and Killian whole heartedly agreed-he and Robin had been mates when the other man had been down here and they had sort of had an understanding which came when you loved someone whole heartedly-to the point where you could never imagine yourself moving on-and yet you found yourself spending most nights dreaming of another. He and Robin had bonded from that and Killian thought it only fair that someone at least tell him who he was sleeping with.

But there was still a lot to digest. For a start there was Giselle's new place on their side of things but she stayed mostly silent even when Regina left in a wave of purple smoke and Emma (ignoring her parents as she so often did now) disappeared after her slamming the door shut. The baby choose that moment to start crying and Killian who suspected that Snow White's fragile temper wouldn't last if his daughter made one of her strange, sarcastic comments decided the only thing to do was usher her out the door.

"Ugh" Giselle said as they walked down the street. "Babies…"

She was dressed rather prettily today he noted in a small black lace skirt that edged to her knees and a green shirt with her boots again. Her hair was half up, half down and to anyone else they looked (minus the hook) like a normal father and daughter walking up the street.

"How long do you think you'll be staying?" he asked in a rush. "I mean" he said hurriedly when Giselle stopped and stared at him something like hurt flashing over her features for a second.

"I want you to stay with me but…do I need to start looking for a…place of our own?"

And gods above that was what he wanted, he had wanted this for years it seemed. A house of his own like the Crocodile had with Giselle staggering down sleepy eyed in the morning to eat breakfast with him, perhaps Emma and Henry could join them.

(And when he was feeling at his worst love sick ever he wondered if another little baby might be on the way)

But a house with Giselle…the chance to be a normal dad…well…that was something he couldn't bare to pass by, especially now she was turning seventeen, regardless of law in this town he knew well enough to know that the scant time with his daughter might be soon running out.

Giselle stared at him for a second and then out over the road for another second more. Finally, she swallowed.

"I don't see what harm it could do" she said finally.

"But first tell me what the hell is going on with your girlfriend and her parents and what the hell it has to do with this 'Author' that both you and my father and Henry all seem to want a piece off"

Because apparently, he had not tried his luck already today Killian decided to be brave and sling an arm around his daughter pulling her to his side the way he had once seen David do it with Emma. Affection was something new to him as it was he suspected to Giselle. He had no doubt the Dark One had in his own way been loving, he had seen it on the occasion rare showing, but a part of him knew that affection was rare for Giselle.

It was while he still sometimes caught himself savouring her genuine smiles and laughs and the hugs that he could still count on his hand.

But she did not stiffen when he did this however, she just carried on normally.

So he decided to tell her exactly what battle Emma was facing, what had happened all those years ago when she had been ripped from him, when he had spent most of his time at sea trying so desperately to find a way to kill the man that she had been slowly coming to love.

If he had looked at his daughter, there and then though he might have seen a different reaction to what he was expecting. He might have seen the way her thoughts went, he might have understood what she was trying to say. Because she had said it once, before hadn't she? The one thing she had known about in intimate detail was Dark Ones and how they worked.

If he had looked then he would have seen her preparing herself for what he had no idea was coming. But he didn't.

And that was why her reaction when he told her about Emma's increasing darkness surprised him.

And that keep in mind-was before they got the call that Cruella had kidnapped Henry and was holding him at gunpoint. By the time it was all over it was in hindsight…too late…

* * *

Storybrooke. The Same Day. Later On. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had often thought in her darkest nights no matter where they were if there was ever going to be a line that her father crossed that she couldn't follow. She had thought this in the Castle, during the year apart, when he had been captured, when she had found out the truth about her real father. In hindsight all of those things she had forgiven him for because none of them even the last one had been enough to override the love that she had felt for the one man she had always believed loved her in his own way even if it was not conventional.

But this.

This might be the turning point.

Zelena.

This was the woman that had killed the son that he had risked all for. That she had been a poor substitute for her entire life. She wasn't sure if there had been a point where she had been anything else other than a replacement. Her entire life with him had been in search of his son. Even when he had found him a part of her had struggled with the concept of Bae in their lives because her place was now so suddenly unsure.

She could still remember the conversation that she and Bae had had, the last one in perfect detail and it was clear that both of them looking back had opened the door for having a relationship with the other regardless of the swirling revelations that seemed to but hitting them left right and centre.

And now Bae was dead and her father was in league with the woman that had killed him in order to turn Emma dark and win all his heart desired.

And for the first time she knew that did not include her. It was Belle. It had always been Belle hadn't it? From the second she had walked into the castle it had always been Belle and before that it had been Bae and she for all her assurances that she was something important to him right now it completely the opposite.

Fuck, she was crying.

Currently they were trespassing though he undergrowth of the forest, well she and her father were anyway. God only knew where Emma had gotten off too or where Regina was or what they were doing but right now she was walking again through muddy stick covered woods which she hated and the connotation to Neverland was rather jarring.

This was different to that experience, a year ago she had been distrusting of one father and determined to defend the other and now it was the other way around and she didn't know where to stand or what to think or feel on the matter. All she wanted to do was…but what did she want? She couldn't go back.

Her Dad was walking ahead of her.

Tactfully he had never said anything about what would happen should they run into her father during this excursion or any other, but she was unsure of what to say to him about this and more to the point the damn tears just kept on coming without warning.

It was as if she had been waiting to cry for years.

Her Dad turned around when she stopped, and his face creased with concern when he saw her eyes overbright and her hands trembling as all the emotions of certainly the past six weeks if not longer came pouring out of her. He stared at her for a second not moving and then Giselle took the decision out of his hands. Gone were the days when either one of them would have dithered unexpectedly looking for the first move, to know if they were welcome.

She crossed the small space and into his arms without even thinking about it sobbing without warning. His arms came around her without a second's hesitation one sliding around the small of her back and the hook on her shoulder. She could feel him press a kiss into her hair and the while affair was more intimate than the last hug she had gotten from her father and it made her cry some more. For her father. For Bae. For her old life.

"I'm sorry" she muttered once she had finally sobbed out her full.

Her Dad however shook his head. "No need darling, you just let it out"

She wiped her eyes.

"It's just…I got it" she said "Finally, I got it…I got where I am and…I was horrible to you in the beginning wasn't I?"

Her Dad shrugged.

"Gizzy you had your reasons I understood that, always have always will" He smiled at her then, the real smile that he reserved only for her rather than for Emma and she smiled back hiccupping.

"I told myself a long time ago that if I got you back, if I got a chance at being your father again then I would take all the time that you wanted and never call it enough. I never had"

They stared at each other for a long moment and then Giselle smiled again. She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand and then finally managed to get herself under control.

"Thank you" she said finally. "We should go and find Henry before Emma does something rash"

Her father smiled gently and then offered his arm and Giselle smiling at not only the barrier that had been knocked down between them was gone but that they were getting on better-she perhaps might not have given up the last remnants of hope and love for her father but for once she didn't feel agonised over her choices.

They would find the Author, they would save Emma if they could and they would perhaps live a semi normal life-perhaps this would be how it always would be, her living with two fathers that both fantasised and always would about killing the other and her caught between the middle with no peace either way. But now she was on the other side of that argument.

Giselle had been many things in both her old lifetime and this one but both she knew had been a consummate survivor. She had survived too much and seen too much and she would survive this too. She survived she supposed by sticking with the man that made her feel safest and right now…that was Killian.

They came across Henry later, Cruella was dead, Snow White and Prince Charming next to useless and her Dad was helping Emma Swan to her feet.

It was then Giselle realised they were in trouble. If there was one thing she knew about intimately it was Dark Ones and she knew how to love one and stand by one without losing sight of your own moral code (which she did have even if most of the time she didn't use it) and she knew what someone who had gone to darkness (even if they didn't know it just yet) and she could see it in Emma Swan.

Oh Bloody Hell.

She shot another look to her father who was stroking Emma's hair as Snow White was attempting to brush down Henry's coat, she looked around the lot of them and wondered if she was the only one that could see the darkness growing around Emma.

Because her Dad couldn't.

Her Dad wouldn't know how to stop it and Giselle honestly wasn't sure if he was capable of living with it, Belle sure as shit couldn't reconcile herself with her love for someone despite what they were and what they would always be.

But Giselle could.

Giselle had.

And Giselle Jones made up her mind there and then that if they didn't find the Author in time to stop this then she was going to help her Dad the only way she knew how.

(She just hoped her black tight dresses still fitted)

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Giselle entertains the idea of Emma going dark, Operation Mongoose is enacted and Giselle finds nothing has changed for her. Her father might be dying and Emma makes a choice that devastates everyone but her.**

 **And let me know what you think **


	40. Gods, Demons And Monsters

**Hello, here is another chapter and this is the last one of Season 4!. Finally i think this series is done, it is by far the most difficult one to write. I think as well this is the end of the darker side to Giselle and there will be some new perspectives as well as some new characters.**

 **This series did touch upon some of the darker sides to Giselle especially concerning her relationship with Belle and we see in the next series that come to a head.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine, just Giselle.**

 **Also i did skip over the whole Operation Mongoose thing because as i have said before this series was horrible to write and more than a few episodes for me were horrible to watch.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 40-Gods, Demons And Monsters

Giselle entertains the idea of Emma going dark, Operation Mongoose is enacted and Giselle for once finds out nothing has changed for her…again. Her father might be dying and Emma Swan makes a choice that devastates everyone but her.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Yeah, I'm guilty. Don't come near me. The one thing I'm good at is messing up somebody else. Baby, I'm guilty of turning sweet love into poison. And I got the scars, if you're talking 'bout hurting yourself…Baby, I'm guilty as hell"_** **(Paloma Faith, Guilty)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

They had spent most of the day in the sorcerers, mansion. Belle had dropped by and had attempted to talk to them all about whatever it was her father was planning but considering Giselle had refused to so much as acknowledge her existence (and that she had thought looking back was really the politest she could be without committing murder or drinking herself to death) she had left shortly afterwards.

Personally Giselle thought Belle had no right to plan what her father was going to do next like she knew the man more intimately than she did so as soon as the door closed behind them she turned and said very loudly (in case the other woman was listening)

"Disregard that bullshit, he's not doing any of it"

"Oh you were listening to that were you?" Regina asked raising an eyebrow "I was under the impression you were updating your Instagram"

Giselle decided not to comment and also not to ask how Regina knew what Instagram was because both Robin and her Dad looked like they both dearly wanted to ask and then that would spiral into another conversation about modern technology, they would be seriously side tracked and that would not do whatsoever.

Instead she let the comment slide.

Emma was complaining again. Since something involving an old friend of hers, a dragon and apparently forgiving her parents for being one of the main subheadings under the definition hypocrisy, she had taken to walking around the room slamming empty books down whenever they appeared empty. Giselle wondered if everyone was kidding themselves or if they truly couldn't see it but she could almost taste the scent of darkness in the air. She knew enough about it to know that it was there, hovering waiting to strike.

She wondered briefly if her father would ever give it up. His lifeline, the thing that had kept him alive for so long. Her Dad seemed too. Not the endless dislike of the man who had raised her but he seemed to have given up-or at least pretended to give up the need for revenge-perhaps her other father could.

She knew he could not. That was what made her father…well the Dark One. It was why she stood by him, a combination of intense love and a shard of fear near and then and overall the knowledge that whatever would happen she would be safe. He had probably seen the woman who had abandoned him and his son, the man who had destroyed his family…she could not blame him nor could she blame herself for wanting more than he could give.

There was something about being alone for weeks on end to think about your life while heavily drinking that gave you a rather philosophical outlook on life Giselle thought to herself. Either that or finally she was cracking up.

Which to be honest the later was probably truer.

There was a touch to her arm that forced her to look to her left. It was her Dad, he had been remarkably quiet about this whole affair. She wanted to tell him that he didn't need to worry about his mortality but to be honest she was horribly unsure of everything. Once she would have said that it didn't matter what the plan because her father wouldn't do anything to hurt her. Once upon a time she would have said she didn't care what happened to him in this life or in any other.

Now she was horribly unsure of everything and more to the point she was beginning to wonder if her ability to read into the darkness was being questioned.

"Alright darling?" he asked with a passable attempt of a smile. Giselle shrugged and thankfully her Dad didn't ask her to elaborate simply gave her that small and rather pathetic half smile and then turned his attention to his girlfriend who was still acting like every bit of blank paper had done something personal to offend her.

She sighed and watched him out of the corner of her eye. She looked around the group of people surrounding her and she felt so tired. So very tired and sick of constantly living in fear of what the monster was capable off. The problem was that she had long ago sworn allegiance to a different kind of monster and even know with all the cards on the table she was still not sure if she could ever truly go against the monster that she had loved for so long.

Finally she turned back to her phone figuring that there was nothing here she could do. She thought about seeing her father but realistically she knew that that would only end one way and it sure as shit wouldn't be good for her or probably for her Dad. Right now neither one of the were sure where the other stood and it was both confusing and more than a little dangerous.

* * *

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective.

He was just walking to the Charming's apartment to see Emma when he felt the tale tell signs of magic behind him. He turned around to see Regina, effortlessly put together and falling into stride beside him as if it was normal for the two of them to take walks down the street every day.

"I wouldn't worry about Gold for much longer" she said to him softly and he turned to look at her. She had a rather pensive expression on her face. Whatever she had discovered it had truly managed to shock her or at least surprise her to the point where she did not know even know how she felt about something. The last time that had happened as far as he was aware it had been when they had been in Neverland and Regina had had to confront the ghosts of both her past and her future. Now he had no clue what she was going on about but he suspected that he was not going to like it.

"Oh" he said.

"No" she turned to him then.

"He's dying"

He nearly fell into the lamppost.

"He's what?"

The concept was shocking, oh he had wanted this for a long time he would not deny it. He would also not try and deny the fact that he would never stop wanting the Dark One dead. He had learnt to live with the knowledge that it would never happen but it never changed the fact that it was still something in the dark of night that he dreamed off.

Regina nodded as if she was surprised to be confronted with this fact as well. The Dark One he knew had made Regina the woman that she was today regardless of her redemption and he also knew that she had been more on Giselle's side rather than Belle's when it had come to his banishment. Regardless of how much danger he put them in he knew that the other woman valued him as much as she hated him and the confrontation that the teacher she had valued was dying must be conflicting for her as it had always been.

He wondered then why it was him that was picking up on these signs and nobody else but then decided not to pull that thread. Ever.

"How?"

"His heart is turning completely black. Once it does he dies, well, that's the short story anyhow"

Killian took a moment to fully appreciate that the heart hadn't turned black already and then decided to focus on the more important thing at hand.

"Can he be saved?"

"Only by love…and before you ask Giselle will not be enough, you know who will"

Fuck.

While he didn't know how Belle felt about Gold he did know how Giselle felt about Belle and he could only imagine how she would take the news that to save her father's life Belle had to forgive, forget and fall in love again.

Gods above it would make Milah at her worst look like a quiet day at sea.

Regina nodded. "Look, tell her don't tell I don't care, I am off to tell Belle because the bookworm should at least this time have all the facts before she acts" she sneered a little. "But I thought you should know. For you this is rather a good piece of news"

Killian was still pondering on what she meant by that when he climbed the stairs into the apartment and promptly collapsed because Gold had finally enacted the spell to take away their happy endings.

* * *

The Book Realm. Henry's Perspective (Briefly)

He peered round the house that was the 'Light One' and really what sought of uninventive idiot had come up with that sort of name? Henry could do better after a sugar rush on a twitter feed that he hoped to god neither one of his Moms knew about.

He could see Belle dressed as her Disney counterpart. And wow that dress was bright. He could see a baby that he assumed was Neal and he could see Giselle in a green dress glaring daggers at Belle as she tended the gardens.

Well, at least something was normal in this world.

Giselle's hatred of Belle was at this moment the only comforting thing Henry had and that he suspected was going to keep him awake at night and not in the good way.

Well. That was not his problem. If the wanted poster of his Mom was anything to go by, he had bigger shit to clean up.

Moreover, Henry decided to do just that because this…this was just too strange for even his overactive imagination to contend with.

* * *

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective. After the Book Realm.

Giselle was getting really fucking sick of waking up and not knowing where she was. Oh she could remember that realm clearly and she was furious. Honestly if this was supposed to be her father's happy ending then why had nothing changed for her? Was it too much to ask that he stop at the war and conveniently not save that postage stamp that was Belle's kingdom that wasn't really a kingdom because it had no King?

God she was irritable.

And she was going to have it out with him.

She stormed towards the shop with rage flowing through her body when there was a shout behind her.

"Gizzy"

She turned to see Killian. She wasn't sure if she could remember seeing him at the whole wedding thing but considering he had last been at the apartment and she had woken up in a flowerbed she had to give him points for running all the way down those stairs to find her.

And he had Emma with him.

Oh joy.

"I am having it out with him" she said ignoring her Dad and striding across the road.

"Wait Giz, he's dying"

And that got her to stop.

"What?"

"Yes love, Regina she told me, his heart's nearly gone black, Belle she took the last bit of love he had or she can restore it or…well…I don't know Regina didn't make it clear but…Giselle wear are you going?"

Giselle paused from where she had stomped off to.

"I shouldn't have listened to you" she said finally. "I should have murdered that bitch when I had the chance. Six weeks I had the opportunity to kill her and I didn't do it, talk about wasted opportunities"

"Wow your being calm about this" that was Emma and Giselle didn't bother to turn around because she could almost feel the darkness surrounding the woman. Nothing it seemed had changed.

"Giselle" that was her father but Giselle had already pushed open the door and to her fury there Belle stood leaning over her father with an expression of concern. She looked up and Giselle was marginally pleased to see her face go white. Her father was already unconscious.

"You bitch" she said finally and then when Belle stood up Giselle crossed the room and finally, _finally_ , got to live out her number one dream of slapping that bitch across the face. Emma gasped, her Dad let out a groan and the tinkling of bell signalled more people were here but Giselle didn't care. She slapped Belle again for well…good practice she supposed and then she stared as the woman turned to her clutching her face and felt the supreme smugness that came when you were the Dark One's daughter and someone else was trying to be his wife.

"You left him, you kicked him out, you would have took his house and money if it hadn't been for me, you spread your legs for the first man that came along and now when you have finally took the last piece of his heart possible for yourself and killed him you have the nerve to look at me at all?"

Someone and she knew it was Regina let out a small snort and Giselle knew it wasn't a mock one either. God this felt good-how long had she been wanting to say this-what? Years?

"I knew you would kill him eventually" she said finally distain coating every syllable. "I should have murdered you when I was in the Enchanted Forest and I had the chance…and the stones for it"

"Oh he's not dead" said a voice behind them and she turned then to see the entire Charming clan looking horrified. Robin stood near Henry who both looked stunned, Regina trying to maintain her cool expression by staring at the wall and not by giving any good emotion away, her father watching her with a stranger expression that told her he was seeing someone that wasn't her in this moment and Emma who was watching her with something like awe, but Giselle didn't count that because she seemed to be the only person right now who seemed to understand that Emma was half dark at this point.

It was the Apprentice.

"Oh" she said finally. Belle made to speak but Giselle lifted up her hand and the woman thankfully fell silent. Good she thought viciously. "I have placed him In a magical coma to preserve his heart or what is left of it"

Giselle let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in.

"Thank God" was all she said.

She moved directly in front of the Apprentice who took one look at her and then collapsed.

"I didn't do anything" she said turning to her Dad who rolled his eyes at her and patted her on the shoulder.

"Don't be stupid of course it wasn't you" Regina said finally coming out of her deep inspection of the wall.

"It's the darkness"

Great.

For the first time Giselle didn't feel annoyed as her Dad stood in front of her while the darkness was in the Apprentice, when Emma managed to extract it and somehow let it loose throughout the town.

She didn't comment on the fact that her father was in a magical coma and the other one gripped her hand and pulled her close instead of Emma when they ran out to see if they could catch it.

He didn't say anything until Emma moved to take it's place. Giselle understood though perhaps her Dad did not that this was Emma not just saving Regina but finally giving in to the pain and conflict she must be feeling. She didn't say anything when her Dad brokenly confessed his love or when Emma looked him in the eye and said the same back. For a second she thought she saw Emma look at her and she nodded as if she wanted to say that she understood what Emma was doing and why and if they couldn't save her then she would look after the man she was leaving behind. Dark Ones she knew were not always monsters. She had loved one who had not been a monster-at least not to her-perhaps Killian could love one too?

And then Emma was gone, her Dad looked like his heart had broken, Snow White was screaming and there was a dagger that she knew intimately not showing Rumpelstiltskin but Emma Swan.

Giselle Jones turned then and took a deep breath so nobody could see her face, she was reckless, impulsive and perhaps considering the events in the shop a tad cruel but she wasn't scared easily by much. She had been running on anger for so long that she didn't know what to do or what sort of person she would be when it stopped.

But she couldn't tell her Dad, her broken Dad that for a second when she had seen that thing circle them she had been terrified and yet still somehow expecting that the dagger would instead of flashing Emma's name in the moonlight, might have taken her instead.

Dark Ones were many things.

Gods, Demons, Monsters, Darkness indeed.

* * *

 **And there it is, i hope you enjoyed and i will update as soon as i am able to.**

 **Next Chapter-The first of Season 5-the heroes are in Camelot, Giselle must deal with her feelings that Emma is now the Dark One and Killian must contend with not only the previous events but the knowledge that again he might be the sole father to his daughter and how much he really did miss. **


	41. I Am Tree

**Hi, so here is another chapter and the first of Season 5, i apologise for the lateness of updating but i had a nightmare of an essay that demanded my attention and my uni work has to come first, however i had a little break and therefore i will be able to get some more chapters posted.**

 **What you see in this season is an end to a feud (or at least a truce) dances, fights, darkness, a decision about living arrangements made, a decision made that will define everything, heartbreak, a goodbye, several moments where old characters get to say good bye and finally...Giselle getting a boyfriend...that is far to much like Killian for his own comfort...in all departments.**

 **And with that i will leave you with this chapter.**

 **Also i know that OUAT has finally ended. In my opinion i don't count Season 7 but this show has dominated my life for a long time and regardless i am sorry to see it go-just a little side-note.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 41-I Am Tree

The first chapter of season five, our heroes are in Camelot, Giselle must deal with her feelings now Emma is the Dark One and Killian must contend with not only previous events but the knowledge that again he is the only parent to his still troubled daughter and how much he really did miss out of.

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 ** _"_** ** _Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much"_** **(Helen Keller)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

For a second she couldn't breathe past the guilt and surprise. Emma was the Dark One and she wasn't. It was a surprising end to a rather surprising day and at the same time it wasn't. Giselle took a deep breath and tried to think past the headache she could already sense forming. Instead she took a deeper breath and turned to see the rest of the Hero clan or whatever it was that they were calling themselves now in the same stunned silence she felt.

Finally it was Regina who broke the silence. Regina knew just as Giselle did the damage that they were now in. Their saviour had gone dark, Regina was reformed but not by that much, she, Robin, her father and Henry had no magic, her other father was in a coma and the Charming's (who she thought responsible for this entire mess) were about as much use as a bullet to the head right about now.

Should they be attacked they were hopelessly alone.

And to cap matters of at a spectacular level it was soon becoming clear that the woman wasn't even in this world. Giselle turned to follow them all back into the shop staying at the back, she really did think she was getting too old for this. Belle was still sycophantically by her father's side but Giselle didn't even get a flicker of amusement out of the way the older woman flinched when she saw her. She was really getting too old for this she thought. Of the battles and the fights and the darkness. She'd had no desire to start the fighting again with both of her fathers no doubt on different sides and her caught in the middle again.

She could not choose to just not fight because that wasn't her. She had fought like hell her entire life even when she didn't know it and she didn't know if there was ever going to be a time where she could just relax and be herself. Giselle…

There were two Giselle's though, the Giselle that loved Rumplestilskin to the bitter end and the Giselle that had come to love and trust Killian Jones as her other father. And always the two of them seemed to be battling it out again and again and again until Giselle wasn't sure if could stand it anymore.

She forced herself out of her mental debate when she realised that the heroes had gone and it was just her and Belle in the room. The two of them flicked their eyes at each other from where they both were but Giselle had bigger fish to deal with. Her father was in a comma. Whatever happened he was easy enough to deal with right now. Killian…her Dad…was in the predicament of losing the second woman that he had loved and this time to the very thing that had once consumed him…darkness…

Gods if there was ever a time for irony.

Giselle turned and stepped out onto the street. She had been living alone for such a long time that for a second she didn't know where her Dad would go. And then she remembered. The docks.

What else was new.

She trudged through the now dark streets and then she walked down the ramp to the docks where the newly returned ship-and she had been so isolated she realised that she had no idea how he had got that back. She had spent six weeks in isolation and then another three weeks dealing with the lines that had been drawn between Emma, her, Belle, her two fathers and the Queens of Darkness and everything else that had consumed this town without stopping since the damn fucking curse had been broken. Not for the first time Giselle wished that it hadn't. Life had been so much simpler when they had all thought the worst thing to ever happen in life was that Regina Mills the Mayor would never get around to fixing that damn clock.

Her Dad was exactly where she thought he would be leaning over the deck of his ship as if the sea even in the inky blackness held the answers that he was so desperately seeking. She slipped onto the deck next to him.

"Hey" she said leaning against the wood.

She got a grunt of acknowledgement for her trouble but she supposed that was better than nothing.

"So that was…interesting"

"Interesting? That's the word that you wanna use"

Giselle rubbed her forehead.

"I dunno Dad what word do you wanna use?"

He shrugged.

"I don't know" he said finally. "Where is she?"

Giselle shrugged. "Not In this world" she said thinking. "Enchanted Forest perhaps? That snow world of Elsa's, Camelot with Merlin, you gotta admit the possibilities are endless"

Her Dad snorted again.

"So what do we do if we find her…no Gizzy…you know this world you said so yourself so I'm asking, what do we do when we find Emma? How do we get it out of her?"

Giselle blinked. She was not aware that that had been his plan, the Charming's yes, Henry yes, even Regina though she knew that was out of guilt rather than practicality. But her Dad? Who knew perhaps in ways that she did not about Dark One's?

"I don't think there is a way to do it" she said carefully. "You've seen…that woman…try with father, he wanted to change for her in the beginning probably still does but he cannot. You think if he could change he wouldn't have for Bae. Good God he put himself through hell for that man, I watched him do it, still didn't change him"

"But this is Emma" her Dad pointed out and from the way his voice was it sounded like this was all that was grounding him.

Giselle nodded. She didn't think that there was much difference between her father and Emma Swan. Her father was…had been ultimately more powerful and Emma was ultimately more good but there was still the underlying fact that she felt that she needed to get across to him.

"You might want to ask yourself can you love her with the darkness"

She shook her head when her father showed every sign of interrupting. "I get it Dad I do, you don't want to think about it but you have to ask yourself. I can, I've been able to live with the dark magic seeping around me and the wood of the very house I live in, to tell you the truth I don't think I can live without it. Part of the reason why I never wanted him to change. You have to ask yourself if you can love Emma in every which way possible, good or bad, it's almost like a marriage. You have to be there for the good and the bad. Emma's going to be bad at some point, she's going to do something that morally her parents wont stand for and you have to ask yourself when that time comes will your love for her triumph over whatever it is that she does and if you can live with it"

Her Dad stared at her for a long time and then when he spoke it was almost as if he was turning over the words in his head wondering if she would bolt again.

"Is that what it was like for you?" he asked finally. "When err…when you were growing up?"

"Yes and no" Giselle answered forced to be honest with both him and herself.

"He never did anything, never gave any indication of what he was capable off but I was only with him for maybe two days of the week. I knew what he was by hearing the stories, by reading between the lines and…and honestly the first inkling that I got of how bad he had been was the night that he had been captured and to be honest I was more concerned with my independence and finding you…sorry" she finished quickly when she caught sight of the look upon his face.

"No" he shook his head. Giselle had been aware for months now that when she talked about that part of her life her Dad listened with a sort of desperate hungry curiosity but she knew she was laying pain upon pain. "I want to hear it. But let me ask you something, does that not seem ignorant to you? I mean you knew what he was capable of and you didn't stop him"

Giselle nodded for once not rising to the bait. After all how could she? She knew it was true.

"I knew he wouldn't listen to me" she pointed out. "And more to the point I had only the memories of you that he had given to me. You have to understand my whole life I was completely dependant on him, money, love, protection, in the end the three of them kinda merged together and while I know you don't think It I know that he loved me. Perhaps less than he loved me but he loved me and that for a long time was all I had"

"And you think it's possible to love a Dark One?" he asked without so much as a hint of humour. Giselle stared at him in disbelief for a second and then she realised that he wasn't talking about her ability to love one he was talking about his own.

"Emma didn't rip moth…Milah's heart out" she said finally. She had tripped over the word mother but Killian to his credit didn't give anything away about what that tiny slip about the woman that he had loved once upon a time had meant to him.

"No she did not" he said finally. "Maybe Emma will be the one…maybe she can fight it"

Giselle didn't want to tell him that as far as she knew there was no way to fight it. It was like cutting your arm off, losing a part of your magic, the darkness entwined with Emma was almost like part of her very essence of being now. She had tried to make that point stick with the Charming's the first time that they had, had this discussion but clearly it had not taken.

Idiots.

"Do you wanna go get some pizza?" she asked finally. "We can come back here with it and if you want I can spend the night keep you company?" And then because she didn't want it to sound like she was worried about him-least that destroy the entire thing they had going where Giselle pretended that she didn't care and her Dad knew that she was lying.

"You know, I don't want to be alone tonight either"

Her Dad smiled at her then and almost as if he had to force himself to do it-least he scare her away or something he opened out his arm as if he wanted a hug-Giselle slipped into it because she knew he did, he pressed her to his side for a moment and she felt him release all the tension that was coiled up inside him like a snake.

He was gone the next morning when Giselle woke up but she understood that. She went back to the house to get changed and by the time that she had caught up with him again it seemed that once again the green bitch that had robbed her of her bother was causing trouble.

* * *

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective.

For once he did not look around for his daughter because she had been stood right by him. She had come around the corner at a run in her high heeled boots and her black short things and a shirt that had a V-neck that in Killian's opinion was halfway to being arrested for indecency-really did the young women of this town have no sense of the life they had grown up in? Anyway, she had scrapped back her shorter hair so half of it was up and half of it was down and she was clutching her clutch bag that Killian was willing to bet his other hand not only contained her gun-that he pretended he knew nothing about-but a couple of knives that she had told him in Neverland she was so good at throwing.

"You know" she said as they ran back to the diner to get ready for the portal. "I don't think sleeping on a ship agrees with me, my back's in knots"

Milah had said something similar once and the situation was both nothing alike and somehow everything alike that Killian laughed out loud as they pushed through the door as everywhere started to shake. Robin pushed Zelena in a chair, the dwarfs and Granny scattered. Belle clutching a jar with a rose in it flew to the desk.

"What on earth is that?" Regina asked clutching Roland to her side as she eyed the thing with thinly veiled distaste so very like her mentor that Killian knew it must contain fairy properties.

"This rose will allow me to know Rumple is alright. As long as there are petals on the rose he is alive and theirs a chance to save him" Belle said looking thrilled at the prospect. Regina rolled her eyes.

"Sounds like bullshit to me" Giselle said in what was meant to be a carrying voice but another shudder swept through the whole diner and therefore Killian didn't have to deal with his daughter and Belle starting a fight in the middle of the war they were already facing.

Giselle staggered even though she was gripping onto the table with her whole body.

"Lean on me if you want" he offered. Things between them seemed to be good. Last night was the first time that he had offered a hug himself and she had took it. Giselle shot him one long look and then she wrapped one arm around his waist her bag on it's chain bumping against his side and then the dinner was lifted of the ground and disappearing, the room was fading and all Killian could remember was that feeling of his daughter gripping his coat as if her life depended on it.

* * *

Camelot. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had chosen not to go and look for Emma. By the time they had disembarked two of the dwarfs had been in shock, Granny was furious about the mess, Zelena was still snarling from her chair and Roland had looked terrified. She had spent most time with Roland, the little boy curled up next to her and the both of them steadfastly ignoring the menacing red head glaring at them.

Oh if the kid hadn't been there Giselle would have cut her into pieces she knew. Baby or no baby.

She had loved her brother.

It was Roland who had first heard them approaching. Kid had a sixth sense about these things Giselle could just tell. It was cute and that made her pause, it had been a long time since she could remember something being cute. Perhaps the fog that had covered her emotions for so long was lifting-perhaps cutting her hair and finally allowing herself the chance to form a relationship with Hook without being so co-dependant on her other father was good for her. Who knew who cared?

(she did)

Roland ran outside and straight to his father and Giselle found herself walking to hers. She had dressed in her shorts and black jumper and her boots and she had dressed simply because they were the first thing that she had seen in her wardrobe. In hindsight if this place was anything like her own realm that had been a really bad idea.

And her wardrobe as well as the rest of her stuff was in her old house…she wondered if her Dad had given any thought to weather or not he wanted to find a house for the two of them. There was a moment where she stood there and watched him. He was clutching at Emma's hand with his good one and while personally she thought that Emma herself (as well as her dress) had seen better days, she couldn't deny the fact that for the most part the woman looked untouched by the darkness. Giselle herself couldn't sense it and she had become accustomed to the scent of impending darkness, watching it in the air. Darkness was something she had grown up with. It was the good that she was unsure of.

God, she was like a walking book for Archie wasn't she?

It was a good thing that she wasn't planning on any therapy. Really considering it wasn't.

Emma managed a small smile, she looked exhausted but alright and Giselle didn't want to draw attention to herself until she figured out where the blonde woman was in terms of accepting or defeating her darkness. She was willing to bet Emma was thinking she could manage her own magic but considering Regina had the dagger she was willing to bet the Charming's or who knew, Emma herself might have disagreed with that.

When Arthur arrived Giselle had been pressed against her father's side in what she assumed was his way of caring not that it mattered it seemed. They had been expected.

Giselle didn't know what to make of that. There was something about Arthur that put her ill at ease. Arthur, King of Camelot, famed throughout history and there was something about him that made her hackles rise. A charm she didn't believe for a second existed.

But she was following the rest of them through the gates to the castle and she didn't have much to think after that.

* * *

Storybrooke. Six Weeks Later. Killian's Perspective.

He had woke up wearing the same garb he had once been on the seas in. Gone were the jeans and the waistcoats. It was back to the leather coats and pants.

He turned almost immediately his back protesting against the hard floor. They were in Granny's which considering they had just been walking into Camelot was concerning. Giselle was on the floor next to him.

He moved to reach for her but she was already awake. She winced as she sat up and Killian helped her to her feet. Parts of her hair twisted back and she was wearing a rather nice gown of dark blue velvet. Considering what she had been wearing he was rather pleased. The dress had a V-neck but it wasn't as bad and there was a belt of diamonds around her waist and sapphires in her ears.

Two things were worrying though. There was a ring on her finger (not her ring one thank god otherwise he would have panicked) but a rather nice emerald one surrounded by diamonds and there was a fabulous bruise around her eye, dark, violent and throbbing by the look of it.

But she was alive. She wasn't consumed by the darkness.

Emma was however.

Emma was the Dark One.

Killian had failed again it seemed. And once again he was battling to save the woman that he loved from the presence of something dark.

Camelot it seemed had a lot to answer for.

* * *

 **And let me know what you think, i promise i will try and update as soon as i am able too.**

 **Next Chapter-As Giselle plans for a ball she is finally forced to confront her issues with her mother, Rosanna and Belle leading to a surprising conversation. Killian finally gets the chance to have a normal father-daughter moment and Giselle meets an interesting man with a shaded past amongst Camelot's elite just before all hell breaks loose.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	42. An Understanding

**Hi, so here is the second chapter of the Season 5 arc and probably one of the longest things i have ever written for this story. This chapter introduces another character and another mystery and all of it is set in Camelot. The next chapter will follow up from this but will all be set in Storybrooke. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **And let me know what you think. **

**With any luck the next chapter will be up soon but please keep in mind my uni is the most important thing and exams start soon. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 42-An Understanding

As Giselle plans for a ball she is finally forced to confront her issues with her mother, Rosanna, her father and Belle leading to a surprising conversation with the latter. Killian finally gets the chance to have a normal father-daughter moment and Giselle meets an interesting man with a shaded past amongst Camelot's elite just before all hell breaks loose.

The entirety of this chapter is set in Camelot.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _The Spectacle is capital accumulated to the point where it becomes image"_** **(Guy Debord)**

Camelot. Straight after walking through the Gates. Giselle's Perspective. Part One.

The heavy gates swung shut behind them with a finality that took Giselle straight back to her childhood. She had never had this before she realised. She had never been this far north of the Enchanted Forest, so far north in fact that it had remained untouched by the curse and she still had no idea about how that event had taken place.

She turned around watching the people around them. They were dressed more like she was used to in her childhood, gowns and coresets and she could tell that they were attracting a lot of looks. Mostly her. Regina and Snow White were in pants and Belle had a skirt on, she had high heeled boots that came up to her knee and black shorts and she knew that her top was more than a little low cut. In hindsight she should have changed but hindsight was a bitch and that little fact would have or could have saved her a long time ago.

Regina, Zelena and Robin Hood seemed to be embroiled in some heated discussion, Belle was chatting with Leroy and the other three dwarfs and Granny, her Dad had not let go of Emma Swan's hand and the Charming's were chatting with Prince Arthur and Henry. Prince Arthur was looking around expecting someone to come and join him no doubt but Giselle's attention was diverted when she felt a small tugging at her hand. She turned and blinked. It was Roland Hood. Granted Giselle had not much involvement when it came to small children but there was something about Roland that did make even the ice around her heart melt a little.

She bent down to his level. Roland bit his lip again and then looked around.

"Elle, is there going to be a dragon?"

Giselle blinked and then raised an eyebrow.

"Elle? Roland?"

Roland shrugged.

"It's easier than your real name" he said looking adorably irritated. Giselle grinned.

"Alright then. Elle. And no I don't think there will be a dragon remember this isn't like the Merlin cartoons you see on the TV box"

Roland wrinkled his nose. "Got that right" he muttered he looked at Arthur with a rather disapproving gaze. "He looks nothing like the man on the TV box. He's to old to be King"

Giselle snorted and then tried to turn it into a hacking cough. Roland took her hand and squeezed it beaming at her. Giselle smiled back just as she noticed that everyone was bowing because some woman in a pink diamond dress that probably cost more than one family could live on for a year (she noted scathingly as someone who had lived on the outskirts of wealth for most of her childhood) and she was glittering almost with the jewels draped around her neck. Giselle was distinctly unimpressed. She got the feeling that this was all show like. Like Arthur and what must be his wife Genevieve (or as her father had once called her after returning back from Camelot the Once and Future Trollop). The whole thing to her seemed like playing royals-like dressing up and draping yourself in riches made up for the fact that you couldn't rule for shit. At least Snow White had had a family history, even if she had married the a nobody. Giselle had seen real courts and real monarchs and she could honestly say that Camelot was nothing like she had expected.

She was not going to show any respect that hadn't been earned. It was a point of both pride and principals, heaven forbid she barely showed respect to the royals that she was surrounded by and they had at least done something that not even she could deny was worth of the name.

Snow White shot her a look but thankfully none of the Camelot lot had seen Giselle refusing to bow to them. She turned back to Roland and felt his hand curl into hers. She gave it a squeeze a strand of her now short hair falling across her face. It had grown a little and was now just grazing her collarbone. She was pleased to see that they were keeping their looks from Storybrooke as opposed to the Enchanted Forest, honestly, she wasn't sure if she could stand being pressed into a corset event though she didn't think she'd be given much choice.

There was a pause where she looked around. Something had swept over her then, it was as if someone was looking at her through a thin veil of magic. She could feel it in the air. It wasn't just Emma's magic or Regina's or Zelena's. It was something different, something sharper in the air, she could feel it standing her hair on edge.

She bit her lip again and shifted a little. This court was putting her on edge already and she wasn't sure how long she could stand it. Arthur suggested that they get settled into the guest wings to rest, Giselle noted Emma, her Dad, the Charming's, Regina and Robin went to see where Merlin was being kept or whatever it was. Belle took the baby and followed the rest of the group including Henry to be shown their rooms, Leroy snarling at Zelena. Giselle took Roland's hand again.

"You want to go to your room?" she asked him "Or do you wanna go and explore this place?"

"Explore" Roland cried bouncing up and down and Giselle nodded. She could go and see her room later, with the heroes distracted as well as the Camelot royalty, she wanted to see in depth the place where they would be staying just in case this thing went tits up like it had done so many times before whenever they were alone with people from other realms.

"Ok then. Lets, start from the bottom upwards then. The dungeons"

Roland giggled and down they went through a side passage and into the lesser known corridors of the castle of Camelot. The corridors here were tightly pressed and empty.

Giselle had lived in a castle sporadically for most of her adult life and she knew the way to the dungeons of any place easily. They were always at the bottom and they were always heavily guarded and there was always some sort of danger down there that made you glad that they were behind the bars and not you. Plus Giselle knew that dungeons were where you really knew how fair a kingdom's justice was.

And they weren't even guarded. Either Arthur was very secure in his position on the throne or he was really very stupid about his people's love for him. Seeing as Giselle had gotten the sense that he was more arrogant than Peter Pan at his most triumphant she couldn't quite see how he could leave his prisoners unguarded. Clearly it was safe and with that she decided to descend the stairs into the dungeons tugging Roland along with her who was now more interested in skipping down every other step.

There were a couple of drunks sleeping off a night in the tavern that she could see. But the only other cell that was occupied had a dark shadowy shape in it that Giselle couldn't see. She bent down on one knee trying to see what was in the cell and she distinctly heard the chains clink and something shift in the darkness but she couldn't see who.

Roland pulled at her hand. "Elle" he whispered biting his lip. "I'm scared now, can we go and find Papa. I don't think there keeping any dragons down here"

Giselle paused looking further into the blackness for a second. she got the distinct impression that something was looking back at her just as curious of her as she was of whatever human being it was chained in the darkness. She bit her lip for a second and then nodded.

"Ok let's go before they find out we were here"

Roland nodded took her hand and they made it up the stairs and back into the courtyard just as a furious looking Emma stormed past them. Roland skipped back off to his father and Giselle looked around for hers who was wearing a rather irritated expression and shook his head as if to tell her not to bother asking right now.

Arthur smiled at her when he clapped eyes on her and Giselle raised an eyebrow feeling distinctly unimpressed by this grand show. Sure, she supposed he was good looking in that jock like way but nothing spoke out about him in the way the legends had done.

"And who is this fine lady?"

Giselle held out her hand and noted with wry amusement even as he did bend down to kiss it his eyes were more on her legs than on anything else. She would have been amused if she hadn't felt so tired of looking and being the object of flirtation. She was very nearly seventeen, she was for the most part an adult. She was ready for the real thing, she was ready for love.

"My daughter your Majesty, Giselle Jones"

"Lady Giselle Jones" Giselle interjected smoothly. Her father raised an eyebrow, but Giselle shrugged a little. What was she going to do say her father was the Dark One? Say her other, father was Captain Hook? Judging by the way nobody seemed bothered by Regina there was no way that they didn't know that she was the Evil Queen. And anyhow, technically she was a Lady. Err...anyhow.

"Lady Giselle Jones" Arthur said smoothly. "A pleasure to welcome you to Camelot. We are going to have a ball tonight to introduce our Saviour, Regina to our people"

Giselle only just managed to turn her shout of laughter that came without warning into a hacking cough. Regina glared.

"I will have a dress in your size sent up to your room tonight" he said beaming. "And we will have a wonderful time"

And with that he was gone.

Giselle turned around to face the rest of the group.

"Oh there had better be some good explanation for this one"

"Oh" her Dad said slinging his one good arm around her shoulder. "Gizzy" she noted not only the familiarity of the way he was around her now and the return of the nickname that had kept him sane (ish) when he had believed that she was dead.

"This one is a story for the lad's book"

* * *

Camelot. The Night of the Ball. Giselle's Perspective. Part Two.

The dress was admittedly beautiful. It was silver and white (apparently they were all wearing white or pale colours) it was a long gown with a corset already built in which was something she supposed. The bodice was embroidered with silver and diamonds in swirling flower patterns, the neckline was a v-neck and the sleeves came up from the bodice in loose waves of silk. The skirt was flowing in thick yards of heavy white silk which swished as she walked and the overcoat of the skirt was also embroidered with the same flowers in lace. Someone had loaned her pearls to match for her ears with diamonds and for her neck in two creamy strands. Even the headdress which was two strands of seed pearls and mini-diamonds to go in her hair. Either Camelot was very rich or Arthur was very much in debt trying to pretend that his kingdom was.

Either way though even Giselle had to admit it was a beautiful dress.

Also included was a rather nice white shawl of fabric soften than cashmere that she supposed was to be used if they were going outside. She could wear her boots with the dress but they had supplied rather nice closed toe satin slippers with a decent high heel and had silver thread on the toes.

Actually to be honest she was rather impressed.

But for some reason Giselle was feeling rather weepy. She wasn't a woman to be overcome by a sentimental moment, hell she could barely remember the last time she cried, she had always been quicker to the temper rather to tears. But there was something about standing there in her underwear (grey strapless bra and matching underwear set that somehow she was going to have to get washed) her dress to one side that made her feel horribly emotional for some reason.

Snow White had gone to help Emma get dressed, Henry was having a tunic picked out by Regina, Roland was with Robin, even the baby had someone. Giselle had…nobody really.

Perhaps that was a lie, she did have a Dad. A bloody good one she had to admit and he was down the corridor. But she didn't have anyone here to help her get ready for her first ball because for all intents and purposes she was alone at her first ball.

It hurt to admit it but Giselle knew…she didn't have a mother.

She had not really given Milah so much as a thought over the years. Her childhood had been defined by her being an evil whore who had ruined her father's life and had run off with a pirate. When Bae had first come back she had been too messed up with the idea of having Killian in her life for her to ask him any questions and then he had died. Speaking to her father about her mother had clearly been a no go and she had never really managed to find a good time to speak to her Dad about the woman that he had loved whose death had broke his heart.

So here she was standing there in her dress that she couldn't do the laces of, a glass of Camelot's amber whiskey in her hand or something that might have been whiskey a long time ago (and it wasn't good, but it was good enough to take the burn away-and clearly there was no laws on drinking in this place which was a good idea in her book) and utterly confused and miserable. What a fucking change for her she thought bitterly. She had spent so long of her life miserable.

There was a knock at the door and Giselle used the dress to cover herself up as she opened it.

It was Belle.

For once she was not even irritated by it.

"Can I help you?" she asked. Belle didn't so much as flicker.

"I wanted to check that you were doing alright"

Giselle had a second to imagine what would happen if she shut the door and then did something that she would have never imagined doing in the last decade or more so…

"No" she said finally. "I'm not doing alright, I'm hopeless aren't I? can't even get dressed without help"

Belle stared at her for a second. She was perfectly dressed in a nice gown with sleeves that only started at her elbows and her hair was pinned up elegantly with diamonds. She had left that damn rose behind thank god because Giselle knew she might have thrown it across the room had she seen it.

"Do you want me to do your corset?" she asked finally.

Giselle nodded before the part of her brain that was still the angry teenager twenty eight years ago could tell her she didn't need help.

Belle entered the room and Giselle bent over the dresser. She had forgotten she thought wincing, how tight corset dresses could be. Once the dress was on she had to admit it looked good. Her hair had curled down to mid neck and she stared at it.

"You look nice with it all cut off you know. Somehow younger and older at the same time" Belle said quietly folding her hands in her lap and sat on the bed.

Giselle took a shorter strand and began to twirl it around the string of pearls.

"Thanks" she said shortly. "Whiskey?"

"It's terrible" Belle deadpanned and Giselle laughed once as she finished with her hair and put in her earrings.

"Yeah I suppose"

"You know" Belle said as if she was thinking very hard about what she was trying to say. "I never wanted us to be enemies"

Giselle paused and took her drink in her hand sitting down in her folds of fabric and turning to face Belle.

"I had just lost the closest thing I ever had to a mother" she said shortly. "And then it was me and him. And then there was you and it was like a slap in the face. I was young and…it hurt…he's always had a thing for bright shiny things. You were a replacement for something, I supposed back then I thought It was for Rosanna but…I guess I thought really that he was replacing me"

"He wouldn't have done that. He loved you" Belle said after a while her eyes on her wedding ring that she still wore.

"He loved you" Giselle pointed out, and then the thing that she really wanted to say burst out of her without warning. "I thought you knew what you were getting into when you married him, you had to know he wasn't going to change overnight. He loved you, he loved me but he was always going to love his power more. I thought you knew that"

"That's the difference between you and me though" Belle pointed out. "You were happy with being second to the darkness because he was the only person you had. I wasn't, and I wasn't alone"

"You know I'm always going to be on his side" Giselle said. Her tone was light when she looked at Belle but her words rang true. For a second she thought she saw pity in the other woman's gaze but when she looked again it was with a rather contemplative look on her face.

"Because you don't know how to not be on his side?" she asked tilting her head to the side. Giselle considered it for a heartbeat and then shook her head.

"Because he was there. He didn't have to raise me. In his mind my mother betrayed him and my father destroyed his pride and his family. Was he wrong? Yeah sure but he could have killed me, could have left me, could have chucked me in an orphanage or worse, and he didn't, it's loyalty and love and respect. I didn't see past that then and I don't see past it now. That's what you all don't understand. You can only see the darkness and I don't"

She levelled Belle with a long look.

"And I thought you did too. I thought we were on the same side in this. So if you're here asking for my forgiveness for what you did throwing him over the town line then your not going to get it. In fact theirs an argument that we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't. And I will never forgive you for Will, if he's stupid enough to forgive you when he wakes up that's his funeral, I'm washing my hands of it. All of it."

She downed the whiskey in one and then stood up.

Belle still sat down looked at her with dark eyes.

"So we have an understanding then. Of each other?" she said finally looking at Giselle who raised an eyebrow and despite herself grinned.

"An understanding of each other? Is that what were gonna call it? Then yes we do"

Belle stared at her again long and hard and then stood up. There was a feeling in the air that they had aired something today. The feelings that they both had concerning the other were not gone but she had to admit that they had managed to spend half an hour in each other's presence with everything that had happened and she swallowed down her retort.

"You know" Belle said at the door. "You might hate me but you were never the perfect child. There have been times where I have really wanted to smack you over the years"

"Yes, well" Giselle said feeling her temper rising and her generosity and good will running out rather rapidly. "You are not the hero everyone thinks you are either"

Belle raised an eyebrow "Perhaps one day you and I will be on the same side against everyone we ever knew" she said as sweet as poisonous milk.

Giselle smiled back so sweetly that she could feel her face nearly crack.

"Perhaps" she said just as sweetly.

And then the door shut behind them and Giselle fell back on the bed in a wave of white silk and beading and wondered why in the name of all that was good in this world had she found herself embroiled on another adventure/near suicide mission with these people.

* * *

Camelot. The Night of the Ball. Killian's Perspective.

Emma and Snow White had made their entrances together. He had been so distracted by Swan in her white gown and with flowers in her hair (looking like a bride he thought) twirling around during the dance, that when he heard Arthur cry out (rather too jovially he would later realise). "Ah Lady Giselle so delighted that you could join us" he had turned around forgetting in his delight that his daughter was yet to join them.

He turned around and then stopped dead. For a split second he couldn't breathe. For a split second he thought he was back in that tavern watching the beautiful dark haired woman arguing with her husband and wondering for the first time in his life weather or not he had the balls to talk to this woman. For a split second he thought he saw a younger more beautiful Milah coming down the stairs and even though he was deliriously in love with Emma Swan his heart gave a long painful thud as he thought of the woman that had held his heart for a long time.

But it was Giselle. Her hair was curled back from her face and she held herself with a decorum he had never seen with her before. Her dressed was stunning, her jewels complimented them and she smiled when she saw him stepping down the last of the stairs and holding out her hand to Arthur as if he was a servant.

"Hey Dad, Emma" she said grinning. "You look nice"

"So do you" Emma said and the two of them exchanged a genuine smile.

"Dad" Giselle said looking around and with the air of someone doing something that she was still not sure if she was alive.

"Do you want to dance?"

He blinked. He had never expected her to ask that question and he found it quite literally floored him.

"Of course" he said before anything else could stop him. He took Giselle's hand with his one good one and took her out on the dancefloor.

"You dance well love" he said twirling her around. Giselle laughed and Killian was once again struck by how much she looked like her mother.

"Thanks, too much time twirling around the room in the Dark Castle."

"Dark One didn't take you then?"

Giselle laughed again this time louder.

"Please" she said shaking her head "First ball, first dance, first father-daughter dance with you"

That stoked Killian's heart. Pride was something to cling to in this three-way parenting relationship that had often meant he was on the outside looking in. He was spending genuine time with his daughter having a moment that the Dark One hadn't been able to take from me and a moment that he could have easily imagined on his ship. He felt a genuine mixture of elation and love that nearly knocked him over.

He twirled Giselle around once more before the song ended and then she disappeared muttering something about getting a goblet of wine. Killian watched her go with a light heart and then there was a touch on his shoulder and he turned around to see Emma her face for once unclouded by the tired pull of two different types of magic colliding with each other.

"Come on" she said smiling softly. "Let's have another dance"

And that was the last moment of joy before all hell literally kicked off.

* * *

Camelot Dungeons. The Night of the Ball. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had grabbed a goblet of wine and a chicken leg (because she might be a lady but she was not that much of a lady) and she had gone outside for some air before curiosity got the better of her and she turned to go to the dungeons. There had been someone in that cell she knew and she was still interested in that strange sense of magic in the air.

Again the things were unguarded. Giselle would have rolled her eyes but she had done that too much in the last…well…lifetime.

This time the cell was occupied. The dark shadow had come forwards and Giselle could see it was a man. He had dirty blonde hair unkept but still quite trimmed and he was staring at his dirty hands. He looked like he was in dire need of food and in dire need of a good bath.

Giselle paused looking at him now she could see him she was undecided upon what to do.

"Good evening Elle" he said not taking his eyes of the bit of straw he was twirling in two dirty fingers.

"How the hell do you…" she began but the man cut across her. She said man-she would estimate him to be between twenty and twenty five but to be honest he was so thin and sat at such a strange angle that she couldn't be sure.

"I heard you and the boy this morning. Elle…Elle…" he said again savouring the name as if it was something important. Giselle had never had someone do that before she noted. Not with that level of interest, interest that was anything other than parental.

"Elle isn't the right name for you though is it?"

"It's Giselle" she said speaking quietly.

"Giselle" the man drawled. "Giselle, Elle, El- _le_ " he drawled finally. "Yes I suppose Elle will do"

"You have magic, powerful magic. It's not dark though it's not light, it's somewhere in the grey area. I have to admit I'm impressed, I've never seen anyone with a magical haze-so to speak-in the grey area." Giselle stated. The man looked at her then moving out of the shadows and Giselle saw that he had very blue eyes that stood out in a (admittedly) very handsome half chiselled face.

"Are you eating that" he said suddenly tearing his eyes from her face to the chicken leg she was holding loosely at her side and Giselle usually so well adapt at witty remarks held out the damn thing without saying anything. He took it off her and stuffed half of it down his throat as if it was the first meal he had had in a long time.

(Considering the condition of him Giselle honestly couldn't disprove that thought)

"My name is Axel" he said finally after throwing away the bone. She gave him the wine without a second thought and watched as he downed it down his throat.

"And yes my magic is a bit different. Comes when you have…well…a different life than most I suppose" he shot her another look. "How did you know it was in the grey area, how come you can feel magic? That's my first line of defence gone"

Giselle shrugged. "Wouldn't you like to know"

Axel stared at her for a second. "Yes" he said quietly. "Yes I would"

Giselle stared at him and then was just about to open her mouth when she heard an rather loud clatter and the sounds of screaming coming from above. She turned back to Axel but found that he had disappeared back into the cell. She knew that soon enough she would be discovered and with that she turned back and ran up the stairs picking up handfuls of her dress as she ran.

The shouting was coming from the tower that they had been placed in. She thundered up the stairs and then came face to face with an ashen looking Emma Swan. Giselle noticed but didn't comment on the fact that her forearm was turning back from the scales that she had grown up with into Emma's fair skin.

There was a pause where the two of them looked at each other and then Giselle flattened herself to the wall and Emma swept past her looking drained.

As it turned out someone had attacked Regina, that had resulted in Robin nearly being killed and the ball coming to a rather abrupt end. Emma it seemed had used dark magic to heal him against Giselle's better judgement and Regina's request and now there was a heated debate between her and the Charming's over weather or not it was a good idea of hers to have asked Emma to do it.

There was a pause where she stood there and listened to them argue and then she went over to her Dad who was watching with a rather annoyed expression.

"Go to Emma" she whispered in his ear. "I'm going to go to bed. Make sure Henry does as well"

He turned to stare at her.

"Where did you get off too?"

"That's not important now. I'll see you in the morning"

Her Dad nodded. "Alright darling. But make sure your doors and windows are all locked tonight alright? For me?"

Giselle nodded and turned and followed Emma down the stairs, back down the corridor and into her room. She locked the door behind her kicked off her shoes and managed to shimmy her way out of her dress without needing any assistance and pulled of her earrings and hair pins. Finally once she was naked she put on the soft linin nightgown that some servant had left near the lit fire so it was warm and washed her face with the cool water before she slipped into the bed with the heavy covers and the thick mattress.

Giselle did go to sleep that night and she did sleep easily. But for some reason the last thing she fell asleep thinking about were those blue eyes, high cheekbones and the feeling that not everything was perfect in this kingdom that was going to save them from the darkness eating away at one of their own.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Set entirely in Storybrooke-As Giselle settles back into life in Storybrooke she attempts to help her father come to terms with what has happened and what he can live with, seriously begins to be consulted as a person of interest in the 'game', must contend with Arthur's strange imaginings and above all the smouldering looks from the blue eyed man that haunts Granny's. **

**And let me know what you think. **


	43. Keeping Friends Close

**Hi, so here is another chapter and this is the beginning of both a personal and fascinating (or so I think) arc for Giselle. I have never taken a character on a journey like this so I hope you enjoy it.**

 **I would just like to state before you read this that there is never any intention for Giselle to have an affair with a married man. I never really did like Arthur and I thought the relationship he had with his own wife was one of the most disturbing things that I had ever watched on OUAT. But the way I portray this is that Camelot is one of those kingdoms where the king can have a mistress but the Queen is the Queen. Also without her memories Giselle is more aware of this and of course what with Emma dark and her relationship with Belle complicated she doesn't have a lot of female's she can trust. But that too is going to be addressed probably in the next chapter.**

 **I may have just spoiled this chapter for you but as an author I have to defend my characters and Giselle is one of the more special ones as she is an OC. I hope you all understand this and keep this in mind as we progress onto the rest of the chapters for Season 5.**

 **And don't worry Giselle is going to feature more in the action of this series especially in the second half, she is still central to the story but this arc looks more at her emotionally as she grows and chances and her relationship with other people both dead and alive and letting go of a lot of hurt and anger and grief.**

 **And a little side note on updating- I am in the middle of revising for my exams and therefore I wish anyone sitting them good luck-I am hoping to update before I sit them but if not I will not be updating this story until the end of May. However I will be doing a multiple update for you then so lots of chapters.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle and now Axel.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 43-Keeping Friends Close

As Giselle settles back into life in Storybrooke, she attempts to help her father come to terms with what has happened and what he can live with, seriously begins to be consulted as a person of interest in the 'game', must contend with Arthur's strange imaginings and above all the smouldering looks from the blue eyed man with the sad expression that haunts Granny's.

The entirety of this chapter is set in Storybrooke.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _It is the very error of the moon. She comes more nearer earth than she was wont. And makes men mad"_** **(William Shakespeare)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective

Giselle woke up in Storybrooke. She woke up in her old bedroom (so much for the house she and her Dad were going to look for she thought bitterly) and she could hear Belle in the kitchen-she too had apparently moved back in. She calculated in her head the events that had just taken place-and what she thought about them.

Emma was now the Dark One. That was…well not totally unexpected Giselle thought. She had expected that as soon as she had seen the name on the dagger. Nobody could have that kind of power and refuse it when it was coursing through their bloodstream not even the great Emma Swan. That Giselle could deal with as long as nothing affected her directly. She had lived with a Dark One that was far more terrifying and…well…she still had her life.

The second thing was that her father was in a magical coma. That was somewhat tricky to get around considering the only thing keeping him tethered to life was that damn flower of Belle's that Giselle had a strong urge to take a pair of scissors to. That she thought with a sigh-she was going to have to leave to Regina so she imagined it would be last on the list.

Her other Dad was madly in love with a woman who didn't really have the capability to love anymore. That was going to be difficult and more to the point that was a question that needed to be urgently addressed. She imagined that he would be desperate to save Emma but Giselle did wonder what would happen if he didn't.

Would he join her? Would they be the new Dark Couple? And what was always the one important question for her, how would it effect Giselle?

But Giselle did wonder if her father would become dark again for Emma. She wouldn't deny that if he did it wouldn't affect her. she remembered what they had called her and her Dad and Belle when she had been Lacey and Bae was still alive and everything had been a haze of drink and self-pity, they had been the Dark Family of Storybrooke and she also couldn't deny that if that happened again she wouldn't be able to fit seamlessly into the role she had been playing her whole life.

Henry wouldn't be a part of it either-kid had too much hope to ever go evil. Giselle went back and forth between putting that in the pro and con side of her Dad embracing his pirate side again and then eventually decided to move on to another problem.

There was still six missing weeks. And Giselle had a feeling that even if she had forgot what had happened, Emma turning dark was not the only thing that felt like it had been swept under the rug. She sat up then in bed her hair a scraggly mess in a small ponytail and she bit her lip thinking hard. It seemed like she had been fighting against something since last night-or someone.

And then she stood up and got out of bed, her pyjama's were decent enough this time around, long flannel bottoms and a grey shirt and she padded downstairs to see if there was any mail from the six weeks that they had been missing-life for some people at least seemed to have been going and she grabbed the tea that Belle had made with a polite nod and a smile that might have been falsely sweet but one that she certainly didn't plan.

What was it with this time jump? Had she decided to become nice to Belle in Camelot? If so then it was clear that the events that had happened were pretty fucking dire.

Maybe there was a reason for Emma to take their memories away.

She took her tea out onto the step and that was when she felt it. It was a nice day. The sun was shining-someone had gotten rid of the last remnants of the ice that had still been floating around (and who had known that magical ice was a lot harder to defrost?) the breeze was strong and it blew in her face and she could feel it.

There was something in the air, something in the bushes that made her stop and pause. It was like someone was looking at her but she couldn't see them. But for some reason Giselle could feel them or more importantly the pricking against her skin that shouldn't feel familiar but did, like an old friend. It was a feeling she had gotten sometimes as a child when she had seen her father use magic too much and she had been unable to do anything but hide until the feeling that something was buzzing on her very skin seemed to go away.

She looked around and then moved back into the shadows of her house. She decided not to go to the mailbox. She decided to go back to bed for a time. She needed to do something she thought in the shower that morning-about a brutal paranoia and anxiety that was beginning to creep up on her whenever she thought about what was coming next. For once in her life she wanted nothing but peace in this town, in this life, in this family that was quickly becoming a multi-patchworked thing. There seemed to be so many of the Charming's and their friends coming out of the woodwork it was getting hard even for Giselle to see where she stood when she took into account her Dad and his relationship with Emma.

Maybe Giselle should take up yoga for the calm?

She debated this as she showered and washed and dried her hair. For once she couldn't be bothered and she tied it back applying her make up and finding a rather nice short sleeved purple shirt to go with her blue jeans and brown thigh high lace up boots. She looked down at her desk and she noticed the ring that she had placed on the desk the previous night. She had taken off the emerald and diamond trio on the gold band and now she was staring at it and she had no idea not only how she had got it but more to the point who had given it to her.

She decided to leave it there.

No use in tempting any kind of fate just yet.

She looked in the mirror. Even under a coat of foundation the bruise that she had somehow gotten was still prominent. It was dark and purple and angry and still throbbing. Great. Somehow the trip to Camelot had a lot to answer for.

She made it to Granny's to see her Dad staring morosely into a pot of coffee. He looked slightly worse for wear and Giselle could see Robin looking very much the same and wondered what the hell the two of them had been doing when she had gone home that night to change out of that gown and into some decent, not rib crushing underwear. She supposed her jumper and shorts were still in Camelot which was a shame because she had rather liked that outfit as old as it was.

But her Dad had just found out that his girlfriend had become the thing he had tried so hard to destroy and Giselle couldn't help but feel pity for him so she hugged him taking him rather by surprise.

As her father pulled back he noticed the not concealed bruise and winced. His thumb came out and gently touched it and Giselle couldn't hide the particularly nasty throb that it gave even under the make up she was wearing.

"Still no idea how I got it" she said finally accepting the pumpkin spice latte in front of her that was there without asking. Granny…Giselle might have been a tad too unfair on that woman.

The door behind them opened the bell tingling and Giselle felt that small shiver up her spine again she had felt when she had been outside her house that morning. She ignored it in favour of her father who was already on what she suspected to be his second or third cup of coffee.

"Six weeks spent in a place, you bruised, Emma the Dark One and nobody can remember a damn thing about what happened or the people that we met"

The door behind them abruptly opened and closed again. Giselle ignored it in favour of leaning back on her chair.

"Have you given any thought to what your going to do"

Her Dad didn't look up from his coffee.

"Regina thinks we need to find a way to find Merlin. She's combing her books, as soon as Robin is a little more human I think he's going to join her" he shot a weary look at Robin who was half nodding off on the table.

"I didn't mean that" she said scathingly and then she leaned forward so nobody could listen in without them noticing.

"I meant have you given any thought to what your going to do when this plan of Regina fails. And that's a when by the way, because your girlfriend is the Dark One and you're not exactly on good terms with those"

"Are you asking me if I'm going to stop seeing Emma?"

"No, I'm asking you if your going to go dark with her" Giselle said bluntly. Apparently too bluntly because her Dad reared back as if he had never considered that a possibility which Giselle was willing to bet a great deal on was a lie.

"Because" she said ignoring her father. "If you are then I should warn you that there is a very good chance the Charming's are going to get in your way, though there might be an argument for this is all there fault. Not that they listen of course"

She took a deep swig of coffee.

Her Dad snorted a little. "And what would you think? Because I don't really care about their opinions"

Giselle smiled. "You really got to ask me if I can love a Dark One?"

Her Dad smiled though this time it was a little bitter.

"Anyway just something you really gotta think about. Cause where I might ok with, hopeful Henry won't be"

The moment however was disrupted when the door slammed open off it's hinges and Leroy came in. Or rather was being thrown in by a man in armour who Giselle knew instinctively was going to cause her a headache.

As it turned out they didn't need to worry about what they had left behind in Camelot.

Camelot was here.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Woods. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle was standing in the woods in her good boots watching the people of Camelot scurry around worry and fear on their faces whenever they took in something unusual-like bottled water.

Heavens only knew what they were going to do when they found out about the internet or tampons or something.

In some ways the life that she had lived had disappeared and was replaced by this life…Storybrooke. Giselle could remember a time when everyone wanted to go back and live out their old lives and she wondered briefly if she would have ever done that. The answer was now clear, no.

She hadn't wanted to help to be honest. But her father had disappeared somewhere between Granny's and Regina's office and Giselle was not about to draw attention to his disappearance. The man had a lot of shit to work through and she was not going to stop him. So, when David had turned to her and asked her for help she had nodded.

There was nothing to gleam or give in a conversation between Arthur and Regina where she explained that whatever had happened in Camelot had involved a lot of lying on their part.

Instead here she was watching stragglers stagger out from the woods and wondering what is was to leave your home knowingly verses what they had been through when Regina had cast her curse.

There was a movement beside her and she turned to see the King of Camelot himself standing next to her. He was very different from the image Giselle had of him and she was torn between that feeling at the back of her mind that told her he wasn't really like the legend and the desire she felt to suddenly see him out of that chainmail which was strange because…Giselle had never actually felt desire to do anything with any man. Even in the Enchanted Forest Edmund had been one part a childish love and good deal of calculation which was that she was young, on her own and the child of one of the most feared creatures alive.

Instead she decided to smile at him. A part of her brain that sounded disapprovingly like Snow White told her he was married. The other part of her told her that she was attractive, he wasn't hideous, and she was due some fun. Also for a married man his eyes kept drifting to her legs more than he should have done. In the Enchanted Forest or any other realm this wouldn't have been a big thing she thought quickly.

And maybe it was the air but Giselle was feeling particularly…dark today…

Oh crap, maybe Emma was spreading her darkness like a fog. Or maybe Giselle didn't really get to have nice things or nice men.

"Hello" Arthur said smiling. Giselle felt both the urge to lean forwards and lean away at once.

"Hello" she said, he was a king after all. King's were hard to refuse she had seen half of this town put themselves in danger because Snow and Charming had asked them to after all and they were perhaps more royalty than Arthur of Camelot.

"I am Arthur King of Camelot"

"Yes" Giselle drawled feeling rather amused "I gathered that. Anyway I am Giselle Jones" she held out her hand and instead of shaking it like she had half expected Arthur to do he kissed it instead. His mouth lingered a bit more than it should have done and when he looked up at her she was surprised to see the desire in his eyes.

Had someone actually sat down with this man and told him it was perhaps not the best thing to do in this town to take a mistress?

And it really couldn't be her.

"Pleasure" was all he said when he let go.

There was a rustling behind them and Giselle let go of his hand as though the King had burned her.

She swallowed as she turned to see a woman in a purple dress stagger out of the forest. She had her dark hair in a braid and she was clearly Arthur's wife considering the way he left forwards to hold her and kiss her. Giselle felt something curdle in her belly, the happy, warm, amused feeling she had felt when she had realised that an older man was attracted to her gone. Now what was left?

There was a coughing noise behind her. She turned to see Regina her pantsuit and hair immaculate and her eyes dark with something akin to both anger and pain all wrapped in one. She didn't say anything and Giselle stared back at her wondering if the Queen had that ability to read minds that some magic users had.

"Don't" was all she said. "You'll only give yourself a broken heart. And he should know better, don't forget you are your father's daughter-whichever one you like at the minute"

"I'm not" she said and that was true.

She had not encouraged Arthur's behaviour and right now she liked both of her father's very much.

"Don't" was all Regina said and she turned and walked off to find Robin (who had been married too-ok perhaps not to the same woman but who had been married all the same) with a mutinous look on her face.

Giselle stood there thinking hard on what had just happened and she crossed her arms over her chest and tried not to feel panicky. What was that saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? The same might be said for men…keep men who look at you like Arthur had looked at her close because while it had been flattering it was a tad unnerving.

But wasn't she her father's daughter? If she applied that logic then Giselle was either going to become dark and twisted or…run off with a married individual.

Giselle could almost laugh at the irony. Regina didn't have a clue.

God she was so confused.

She was working on that when the screaming started.

The next thing she knew she had a small child running at her.

She started. It was Roland.

"Elle…Elle…Elle…he took Papa, the monster took Papa!" the small child cried and then he threw himself into Giselle's legs with such a force she nearly topped over. She righted herself and then stared down as Roland buried his face into her jeans. Regina came running, blood dripping from her forehead and an expression of abject terror on her face.

"What the hell?"

"Something just took Robin" Regina panted looking terrified-it was Giselle had to admit-an unnerving look on her.

"It was horrible" Roland told her quietly still refusing to let go. Giselle patted him on the back. With the exception of Henry (who she had only babysat a couple of times to make money) Roland was one of the only children she had ever been around (and she did not count the Charming's baby whatsoever).

"Go to Belle and see if she knows what it is" she told David as Regina seemed incapable of listening. "Regina poof me and Roland to Granny's ok?"

Regina absentmindedly waved one hand and Giselle had a second of irritation mixed with the hope that they didn't end up in the middle of the sea before she was staring at the sign for the diner.

"Come on" she said to Roland. "Let's go get some hot chocolate, let Regina take care of the big bad and rescue your Dad"

Roland paused. Giselle bit her lip for a second "And we can get cake, and then if you want ice cream?"

That did the trick. The thought of so much sugar in one afternoon was enough to cheer Roland up enough to go into Granny's and sit down. Either the old women had superpowers, or she had received Leroy's text message and she promptly told Giselle it was on the house. Giselle was just in the process of choosing which cake she wanted, which involved looking at the menu when the older woman chuckled under her breath.

"Looks like you have an admirer my girl"

Giselle looked up for once completely taken by surprise.

"What?"

Granny beamed. "He's one of the Camelot ones she said quietly. I know because he didn't have a clue what to order when he eventually did come in. I imagine he must have stolen those clothes from someone and since you've come in he's not taken his eyes of you."

Giselle half turned around in what she hoped wasn't a very obvious kind of way.

There was a man sat in the corner booth of Granny's. And the old woman might have a point, he wasn't very obvious. He had the sort of cheekbones that would have made David Nolan weep and blonde hair that was swept up into a mess of dirty blonde on top of his head and shaved harshly on the sides. He was skinny, like really skinny and had (and Giselle was not exaggerating here) the bluest of blue eyes that she had ever seen. He was staring at her and even when he caught her looking he did not advert his gaze. He continued to stare at her as if she was something he found interesting. He tilted his head to the side and continued to stare at her with those eyes that felt (and again she was not exaggerating) as if he would undress her to her very soul.

She had seen him before. Somewhere, somehow she had seen him before. She had known him before and she wanted to ask him how but the prickling under her skin was back and she had to turn away in order to get a hold of herself.

Granny watched her knowingly. Giselle shook her head. If the old woman had her way this would be gossip by tomorrow and she didn't need to have that conversation with her Dad. This, this desire, that two men had shown her today was something that you talked to your mother about and Giselle had made it this far without one and she wasn't about to change that.

She took the food over to Roland and tried not to pretend that those eyes were not sticking into the back of her head setting her body on fire.

Oh fuck what a mess.

* * *

Storybrooke. Killian's Perspective.

He had ran into a man that called himself King Arthur shortly after his conversation with Emma. That had been how he had found out about Robin. He would have offered to help but he was so confused that he didn't even ask what was going on just nodded and asked methodically where his daughter was.

When he looked up he saw Arthur's confusion and elaborated.

"Giselle Jones" Already he could feel a headache coming on. That or tears.

"Oh…Giselle is your daughter? Well your wife must have been a good looking woman" Arthur said with a smile that when looking back Killian found he did not like whatsoever.

He shot Arthur what he hoped was his best poisonous look even as his heart which now he knew belonged to a Dark One gave a throb at the thought of Milah.

"She was with the small boy and Regina…the Queen she…well…made them disappeared in purple smoke to his grandmother or someone's grandmother" Arthur said. Killian nodded numbly thinking to himself that if Arthur didn't wipe that smirk of his face king or no king Killian was going to deck him.

But he knew Roland didn't have a grandmother and therefore he went to Granny's.

They were there alright. Roland half asleep against Giselle who was looking…different…it was enough to raise his fatherly concern to an all time high. She looked one step away from bursting into tears and that was enough to promptly make him forget about Emma. Giselle had never looked like that not even when they had lost Bae (or when she had lost the Dark One many times but in his defence he had been too happy about those events to focus on the upset some people were feeling)

He slid into the chair next to her. There was only one other person in the diner apart from Granny's and that was a man in faded jeans and a black jumper and boots all of which Killian was willing to bet were stolen. He was now staring down at his hands but Killian glared at him anyway because he was in a mood.

"You alright darling?" he asked gently.

Giselle looked as if she wanted to ask him something but then thought better of it and shook her head biting her lip.

"I just wish we could remember what had happened Dad" she said quietly. "Because I think I did something really stupid in that realm"

Killian had no idea what she was talking about but he remembered Emma's cold gaze, the way she had looked at him when she had told him the house had been for the two of them, for Henry and his daughter, for the future that they had wanted to build for himself-the future he had said goodbye to when he had held the first women he had ever loved body in his arms and privately begged her to wake up so they could find their daughter together.

He had to admit he had been tempted. He had never understood how Giselle could love the Crocodile but he was beginning to get an inkling of it now. He gently let one hand come up to the dark hair and he pressed a kiss into it feeling Giselle, his daughter…Gizzy he thought to himself sink a little bit more into him and he swallowed again.

"I know darling girl" he said quietly because he had a feeling that Giselle might be the only girl left in his life who he could depend on right now.

"I think I might have done so as well"

And they stayed there until Regina came with Robin and the town began to celebrate unaware of what was really going on within the heart of it.

* * *

 **And let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-As Hook spends more and more time with a slowly darkening Emma, Giselle finds herself distracted by Axel learning some shocking facts about the man, herself and Arthur's kingdom. Meanwhile Giselle is distracted from the news that Rumple is awake by Emma's actions and Killian's disinterest in anything other than them leading self loathing and loneliness that leads to a moment with Arthur that is witnessed by a concerned someone. **


	44. The Man With Blue Eyes

**Hi, so here is another chapter and again another long one. This is part of a multiple update so the following chapters will follow.**

 **Again as i said when it comes to the relationship between Arthur and Giselle it WILL NOT turn into a love affair. These chapters will continue with the focus on how alone Giselle is and the relationships between both of her fathers. For those of you wondering there will be a couple of nice Gold and Giselle moments as well as more development with Axel.**

 **(See the end of the chapter for more notes)**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle.**

 **Please Read and Review**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 44-The Man With Blue Eyes

As Hook spends more time with a slowly darkening Emma, Giselle finds herself distracted by Axel and in the process learns some shocking facts about the man, herself and Arthur's Kingdom. Meanwhile in Storybrooke, Giselle is distracted from the news that her father _(Rumple)_ is awake by Emma's actions, her Dad _(Killian's`)_ disinterest in anything other than Emma, leading her into a spiralling moment of self doubt and loathing and loneliness that leads to a moment with Arthur _(who was not who she really wanted to see)_ that is witnessed by a concerned someone who knows all too well the path that Giselle is close to going down.

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 ** _"_** ** _People like to say that the conflict is between good and evil. The real conflict is between truth and lies"_** **(Don Miguel Ruiz)**

Camelot. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had thought that she would miss technology more if she was being honest with herself. She thought that she would miss her phone and her music and to some extent she did but there was something about waking up to the sounds of birds and a bustling castle that took all that shit away. She had missed it she realised, the simplicity of the Enchanted Forest-oh there might have been problems. She for one had been very relieved to know that she didn't have to worry about plague or smallpox or whatever it was that always ran rampant around the poorer people that always came to the castle. But when it came to the mornings where she woke up curled under thick covers listening to the birds and feeling the roar of a fire she found that she did not miss the sounds of Belle pottering around in the kitchen and the phone next to her blinking keeping her informed of the latest disaster. Instead she found herself sleeping better in those moments than she had ever done in Storybrooke. And despite the fact that they were supposed to be working on a plan to go home she found she wasn't desperate to leave just yet.

That morning she woke up, fell back to sleep again and woke up some time after noon. It was at least a week since they had arrived, since she had met Arthur, Axel and since Emma had gone to the dark side. She stretched out. They had been given nightclothes but Giselle was not going to wear something that came to her ankles and had that night cut of the end so that it came to her mid thigh. The sleeves were of a flowy kind of fabric and she found that her room was away from Emma's long enough so that she didn't have to feel the dark magic that constantly swirled around the other woman.

She dressed after washing in a dark blue gown that hung on her loosely. It had tighter sleeves and a v-neck and was of a crushed royal blue kind of colour. She found the shoes completely impractical bar the white ones she had worn to the ball and so she had taken to wearing boots under her dress for a bit more stable footing.

She found her father easily. Her Dad was always near Emma Swan and Emma was not far from Regina who was spending all of her time pouring over books and trying to make sure that they could find a way to get the most powerful magic worker out of the tree that he had been trapped in.

Emma herself was looking pale and dangerous close to the mark when it came to her temper. Giselle couldn't blame her. She knew all to well the struggle that came when you were battling you most dangerous inner nature when it conflicted with the desire that was held by most of your family. Her father was still there but when she got to the door to the tower she stopped and stepped to the side when she saw David and Arthur coming through.

David smiled at her and carried on down the stairs. Arthur stopped. "Lady Giselle" he said smiling, he took her hand and kissed it and she was suddenly aware that he was watching her. She tried to remind herself that she was trying to remain aloof and away from this man and his kingdom but the part of her that had not felt desired by anyone since Edmund and that felt like a lifetime ago and it was a love between a lost teenager who had come across male attention for the first time in her life. In hindsight she should be relieved that Edmund had died. She had not been ready to be a wife and that was the way that relationship had been heading because she had been in a bad way-a scared girl with a shady past that could explode in her face at whatever time. She was now seventeen in a few days time and that was something that she wondered would be celebrated. She had never needed one before but she supposed you didn't have your biological father back in your life and proven to not be a killer…well…of your mother.

Instead she stood there and watched as Arthur's eyes gazed at her with something even she could recognise as desire and she smiled back. Regardless of the man's marital status she was rather flattered.

And then he was gone and Giselle pushed her way through the door and into the small cramped room. As soon as she did she wished she hadn't. Emma was sat on a stone bench looking exhausted. Snow White was arguing with Regina and her Dad was sat shooting Emma glances every five or six seconds.

"You wanna explain what's going on?" she asked as she came closer to his side so he was the only one who could hear what she was saying.

"Last night Emma used dark magic to save Robin who was nearly killed in a fight as you know. Now she's fighting the urge despite pretending she's fine. David's gone to locate some magic mushroom with Arthur, Henry's off courting something I think and Snow, Belle and Regina are arguing over the next course of action…and speaking of action where did you get to last night? You never did say"

"Just walking around"

"Eh well…be careful. I'm not entirely sure if we can trust this place. Either way I'm going to take Emma to get some fresh air. See you later darling" And then he was gone taking the ghost that had once been Emma Swan with him.

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that soon it was her birthday. That perhaps it might be nice for the two of them to do something together considering she had nobody else but she didn't. Her Dad had enough to deal with right now. Giselle wasn't important.

And for once she didn't even feel the old fight…the old anger that used to keep her going rearing it's ugly head. She just felt drained and not for the first time since coming her…for the first time in a long time actually. She felt like she wanted to curl up and cry, in the arms of her mother…

She shook that feeling away as sentimental twaddle. Giselle's mother had long since gone, her mother figure from childhood long since gone. It didn't do well to depend on dreams, especially not right now.

Right now, she had to make do and focus on the problem at hand-which was making sure Regina didn't try to kill her stepdaughter…again.

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Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

She had been walking when she had felt it. More like sensed it, she turned around and skills honed by a hatred of Zelena and a lifelong powerless feeling had her grabbing someone and slamming him back against the brick wall.

It was that man again. The blonde haired one who was grinning at her as if her reaction had more amused him than hurt him. She noted that his eyes were very blue and his skin stuck on over the bones in his face.

"Morning angel" he said grinning. His accent mirrored that of the Camelot people but there was a hint of something else.

"Who the fuck are you and why the hell do you keep looking at me like that?"

He tilted his head again watching her through narrowed eyes.

"Huh, so you don't remember…well…that complicates things a bit. Names Axel, unlike you I do remember but I sure as the sky is blue not gonna help those heroes or the king that's panting around you like a dog in heat"

He pushed of the wall and off her hold with ease.

"Do what you want Angel but fair warning. You and Arthur are never gonna work, even if you can stomach it, he wants something of you that you can never give him completely. Plus…" His fingers thumbed her bruise for a second.

"I think you know what's going on more than anyone does"

And then he pushed of the wall and disappeared. Not by walking but in a puff of grey smoke like her father used to do up into the air.

What. The. Fuck?

But that moment was ruined by Belle panting down the High Street to tell her the news that Emma Swan had taken her comatose father.

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Storybrooke. Regina's Office. Killian's Perspective.

He should be relieved. The part of him that had long ago accepted the fact that the bloody Crocodile was going to be a part of his daughters life should have accepted that. That being said the other part of him that was ultimately still angry about the time he had missed out on was furious that again the bloody man had come between him and his daughter.

But what was more surprising was that there was no obvious sign of joy from Giselle, just a clinical reaction. In fact Killian wondered if she was actually listening. He could tell he was not the only one confused by this withdrawn behaviour. In fact he could see it written on everyone's face, Belle in particular who was sending Giselle some very confused looks. Instead she was staring at her shoes as if she was struggling to think about anything. If he hadn't been so caught up with Emma then he would have worried about her but right now he had just chosen to remain a good person with a good path in front of him rather than revert back to his old ways. And unlike Regina he did not have the fortune that came with having a child that you needed to redeem yourself in the eyes of-hell he was sure that Giselle would probably encourage him to turn back to the dark side.

That was another thing he might want to mention to his daughter.

"Right" Giselle said cutting across the Charming's and Belle's conversation about weather or not they should go after Rumple.

"Are we going to deal with my father or are we once again prioritising Emma over everything? Because right now I'm a bit confused about what to do, so how about the lot of you figure out a way to stop the new Dark One from joining forces with the Old Dark One and with any luck nothing will implode before lunch."

"I think we should choose Emma. I think she deserves her best chance" that was Snow White and Killian had to physically bit his lip and use his hook to cover it when a million ideas came to mind about what Snow White could do with her second chances. Instead he tried not to think about the choice Emma had given him and the choice he had made. Even know when he knew it was the right one it still felt like a part of him was being removed with his own hook bit by bloody bit.

But that still didn't change the fact that Giselle was not speaking up in her father's defence. Belle it seemed wasn't even going to wait around and stormed off in a cloud of red.

"Don't you want to go with her?" David asked. Giselle stared at him and Killian saw for the first time how hollow she looked. She had been angry, sad, hurt and many other emotions of the negative kind but she had never looked so confused and trapped in her own head as she had done right now.

Looking back over the events that would follow that should have been his first warning that something wasn't right.

But he had missed out so much and had been used to Giselle one way-the Crocodile's Giselle that he found it rather jarring to deal with a Giselle that was confused about a person and an event in her life that he had done a damn fine job of pretending had not happened.

It was either that or go mad. Because he had not lied today. Looking back he was the villain that had started the destruction of his family before he had even had one.

When he looked back up he realised Giselle had gone out the door and with that in mind he went to try and find her.

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Camelot. Giselle's Perspective.

She shouldn't have done it. But to be honest so many events had transpired in Giselle's life previously for her to honestly say there were events that she had taken part in that she had regretted. Instead she had left the heat of the room when her father did to check up on Emma and she had not for once followed him.

She had instead ducked down the same steps that led to the dungeons that she had been in the other night.

Though why she didn't know.

Damn blue eyed thing in the corner of his cell. This time she had ham, cheese and bread with her as well as a canteen of water she had pilfered. All in all it was a good haul and Giselle was reminded of days in the Dark Castle where she would sneak her food into her bedroom so she could sit up and read.

This time he looked even dirtier and more unkempt though and as she came down the guard-less stairs (and really what the hell was Arthur thinking? One day he was going to have real dangerous occupants of these cells and then there would be real trouble) she shook her head and then curled her dress under her to kneel next to him on the opposite sides of the bar as he forced the food and wine down his throat as if it was his last meal.

"You wanna tell me what your in here for? Because Arthur seems to think that his kingdom love him and you seem to be the only person in these cells"

Axel…she remembered that his name was Axel turned to stare at her then and then inched closer to the bars.

"I got a past angel. It's not good, I did somethings, to some people and I didn't get…" he turned his expression away and then looked at her again.

"Do you know about dark magic?"

Oh where to go with that question Giselle thought to herself.

Instead she nodded.

Axel watched her for a second and Giselle knew without question that he had caught her in a lie. However he didn't press the truth from her because she suspected that he knew that she wouldn't talk about it. How did you explain to anyone her past? God knows it did nothing to help with the whole attraction thing that seemed to be growing between the two of them regardless of what had happened throughout the last couple of days.

There was a pause where they stood there…or while she stood there and then she asked the one question that she was desperate to ask.

"What the hell did you do to Arthur to make him lock you up in this place?"

Axel didn't say anything. He picked off some dirt of the corner of one hand.

"I could tell you" he said and his voice was very quiet.

"How much do you know about cursed creatures?"

Giselle blinked.

"Some" she confessed. "I know that most of the time the curse is irreversible and that they have no control most of the time over what they do when they are under the influence. But other than that…" And that was true to be honest because she had seen more than one book around her home showing images of dark creatures and the fates that equally dark individuals could bestow upon them. But she had never met someone cursed to be some dark creature. Unless you counted the Dragon Lady and her daughter Lily but in all honestly Giselle wasn't sure because they had not been cursed to the best of her knowledge-more likely screwed by genetics.

Axel stood up then the chains clinking and he tipped his head back his neck twisting from side to side and snarling so viciously Giselle had to take a step back pressing the folds of her skirt away from him. When he looked back she had to stop herself from screaming but she did gasp and she did clap a hand over her mouth.

Well in her defence it was a rather…unsettling sight to say the least.

Axel's face had changed from the smooth but yet somehow rugged exterior to something that was half animal half not. He had teeth that were long and protruding down his lower lip. His blue eyes were now a bright and unforgiving yellow and his face was a twist of scars and matted fur that she supposed must have once upon a time looked…well…groomed.

He wasn't a werewolf that was clear but he was something else. Something entirely un-human. Axel dropped to his knees then coughing and when he looked up his face was entirely human.

"Sorry" he said finally. "It's the chains. They make transforming at will…rather difficult…easier to let me loose when they can control me in this cell"

"How often…?"

"Once a month near as damn it. Or it used to be before Arthur and those moronic minions came and killed us all. All of us. My family…" He swallowed and then he looked down and when he spoke his voice was trembling with rage.

"Arthur keeps me here as his pet freak…you're the first person I've met that's been nice to me in a very long time. Too long actually" he gave a little chuckle and then looked away and Giselle swallowed feeling uncomfortable but curious all the same.

"What…err…"

"I am a wendigo. Wendigo's are a cross of werewolf's but if you think the later are vicious you have no idea how we operate" he grinned at her viciously.

Giselle raised an eyebrow in response but whatever she was going to say was cut short by a clatter from above. Fuck, the guards must be on their way back from whatever it was that they did all day.

Axel grabbed her wrist then hard.

"Don't trust him Angel. I mean it, he's got his own agenda and he doesn't care who he pisses upon to get it. Giselle you cannot trust him"

The clatter came closer and then Axel was gone and Giselle was up the stairs and in the corridor admiring a painting when they walked past her wrist still throbbing and her mind racing.

She realised that it was the first time that he had called her Giselle.

Fuck she had to find her Dad.

But her Dad had already gone…

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Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

She needed to find her father. At this point her Dad could look after himself and he was obsessed with finding Emma and stopping her and Giselle was more than a little upset that he hadn't checked in with her.

And that was another thing. When had she become like this? She was not some stupid little thing to be overwrought at the drop of a hat. She had survived years on her own weather it be emotionally or physically. Why had things changed now?

She carried on walking down Main Street towards this damn carnival thing that Snow White had insisted on throwing, feeling herself shake even in her warmer purple trousers and silver blouse. She had been so long convinced that she was part of a family that they very concept of not having one was rather unnerving. She had had two fathers that had for a long time fought in their own way like cats and dogs over her and now she was struggling on her own. It was the trap Giselle had tried for a long time not to fall into and now it seemed she had.

She had gotten used to having people that cared about her.

She was walking when someone grabbed her arm. It was Arthur and Giselle stared at him. Seriously? Was it too much for him to change, all that armour was too much.

"Your father is looking for you" was all he said. "But I think he can wait"

And then without warning he kissed her.

Giselle didn't push him away because she had in all honestly been wondering if this was heading this way. She didn't melt into it either but when his tongue pushed his way into her own mouth she couldn't help but move a little so she didn't choke. That apparently gave Arthur enough leverage to move her against the wall and his hand came around her waist to her hip with a hard squeeze that she knew would have bruised.

He let go of her then and she blinked in surprise and she said the first thing that came to her.

"Your married"

Arthur laughed and touched her cheek with his leather glove.

"She's my wife yes. But vows do not always make a happy marriage. From all I heard about your mother dear I think you would know that"

The dig at her mother didn't help. Giselle knew she was a creation at best from adultery and at worse from abandonment and Arthur was implying she wasn't worth much either way. Maybe he was right?

I mean, it wasn't like her mother was going to tell her any different was she?

"I have a longing for you Giselle Jones" Arthur whispered in her ear then and he pressed himself right up against her. Giselle felt her eyebrows go to her head. The only royals she had ever known were the Charming's and they were so happy it was sickening, she had no idea what to do when a king much older than her came on to her. Was turning them down something that you could do? She bit her lip and Arthur watched her.

There was a gaggle of laughter somewhere behind them and Arthur let go of her. Her skin burned where he had touched her.

"We'll talk later" was all he said and then he was gone melting into the darkness and Giselle was still standing there pressed against the wall breathing heavily and her body heaving with emotions that she was not sure of.

She pulled herself together and walked back to Granny's. There was no way that she could sit down with her father and not pretend what had just happened, happened. She wanted her Dad, she wanted her father.

She wanted her mother.

But right now realistically all three of those options were out of the question. She had one father who was now something with an insane dark one. One Dad in love with that dark one and doing everything possible to save her and a mother who…who was dead.

So with that Giselle Jones pulled herself together and went onwards to Granny's with her head held high. She had managed this long on her own and she could manage again.

The problem was she failed to notice Regina Mills standing in the shadows with a look on her face that would have melted snow. The former Evil Queen had seen everything and as Giselle slipped into the dinner she was unaware that she was about to be followed by one woman who was determined to get answers and would not let such a trivial thing as the past get in her way.

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 **And there it is. Let me know what you think.**

 **The Wendigo addition is a new thing for me-Think of it as a cross breed between Supernatural and Teen Wolf and like the poor relation of Ruby's werewolf. But i will leave a lot of it up to your imagination.**

 **Next Chapter-Regina and Giselle have a heart to heart which leaves the Ex Evil Queen taking drastic action. David and Killian discover Arthur's duplicity as Emma and Giselle have a talk in Storybrooke before a relieved Giselle gets a much welcomed surprise. Meanwhile in Camelot as Henry makes Giselle a shocking offer Arthur's true colours are exposed and she makes a decision that will put herself, her family and perhaps something more at risk.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	45. The 'Good' Fight

**Hi, so here is another chapter and with any luck there will be another chapter after this one.**

 **Again as i have stated Giselle will NOT be having a relationship with Arthur. She has been made an offer both in Camelot and a little bit in Stoybrooke to be his mistresses, also she is not being groomed-that is just Regina's opinion of it-believe me the last thing i want to do is use any trigger warnings so this note is just for the . The relationship with Regina is something that i have enjoyed writing despite never doing it before.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 45-The 'Good' Fight

Regina and Giselle have a heart which leaves the Ex-Evil Queen taking drastic action. David and Killian discover Arthur's duplicity as Emma and Giselle have a talk in Storybrooke as a relieved Giselle gets a much welcomed surprise and possibly a new ally. Meanwhile in Camelot as Henry makes Giselle a shocking offer, Arthur's true feelings and intentions are exposed and she makes a decision that will put herself, those around her and perhaps something more at risk.

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 ** _"_** ** _Experience is a brutal teacher but you learn, My God do you learn"_** **(C.S Lewis)**

Storybrooke. Regina's Perspective.

Oh hell no.

That was the only thing that was running through Regina's mind when she saw Arthur slink of into the darkness and Giselle followed suit.

Oh hell no.

This was not happening. Regina did not know what the hell their honoured guest was doing with a seventeen year old girl. Especially Giselle Jones. She had been walking back to clear her mind from the anger that had been building since she had seen what Emma had done to Henry through that damn dreamcatcher. Regina had been letting him get his space but she had received a message telling her that he had gone home and she had finally decided to see if the ice had melted.

(And in all honestly she couldn't help but be a little bit smug that for once as far as their son was concerned it was Emma Swan in the firing line rather than herself)

She had been deep in contemplation when she had seen Arthur and Giselle and despite the darkness she knew enough to know what type of King Arthur was in that moment and exactly what reasoning Giselle was thinking. You didn't have to be a mind-reader to know that Arthur was searching for a mistress.

So much for true love.

Not for the first time Regina missed Rumple. Despite what he had made her to be, despite his actions and his devious intentions he had been in so many ways the father and lover she had never had rolled into one. He had made her who she was today and despite what it had cost her she had gained Henry out of the whole sorry mix. He had been the closest thing she had had to a friend for a long time and she missed the advice and the understanding that only he could give whenever she needed something somewhat dubious.

More importantly she missed him now because Rumple would solve this problem. He would just kill Arthur with one wave of his hand and a smile and then whisk his daughter away for a chat about just what was going through that dark haired head of hers. Regrettably he was not here and Hook (while a doting father who would walk on nails for Giselle) quite frankly was next to useless considering he spent all his time pining after Emma and trying to find a way to cure her.

(As if darkness could ever really be cured. Idiot guyliner)

Regina pondered what to do before she decided to grab the teenager by the hair…so to speak…and speak to Giselle Jones herself. Regina figured that if anyone could understand the confusion the kid was going through then it was going to be her. Belle was no help and the girl wouldn't listen to her anyway. Snow White while understanding an affair with a married man would also be to appalled and judgmental in that way that only she could be, David knew nothing of women besides the one he was married too (besides Snow and David Nolan had been made for each other in a way that Arthur of Camelot and Giselle Jones most certainly were not) and Emma…well…Emma was gone. And Robin…well…her Robin wouldn't know what to do either. Hell he'd probably end up unintentionally encouraging her.

And Regina did understand a little bit what it was like when a powerful man wanted you. It was a combination of confusion and recklessness and glee that you had were noticeable. Whenever Leopold had noticed her in the early months of their marriage she had confessed a little to being pleased by the attention. But she also knew what it was like to want to be desired, to want to have someone look at you like you burned the world around them. She knew what it was like to burn hot in a cold bed and more importantly Regina knew deep down what it was like to pine for a mother who would never be their to talk to her little girl about men.

Maybe that was all Giselle needed. A mother? The kid already had two fathers and men were…well…men.

So Regina waited until she could sense Giselle's presence reached out with her magic and let the smoke swirl around her until she was at the duck pond where Giselle had used to take Henry once upon a time when she was still Scarlett Gold and then she reached out to grab the surprised girls arm and took them both to her parlour with it's crackling fire.

"Sit" she instructed Giselle forcing the surprised girl (who looked every inch of a woman who had just been pushed against the wall and kissed as if her life depended on it) and she opened the door to her living room.

"Henry" she called up the stairs. "I am having a conversation with Giselle in my living room. Please knock before you come in"

No answer.

Well. She hadn't really expected one.

Giselle was watching her and Regina took her in with one veiled swoop closing the doors and pouring two drinks of her apple cider with the whiskey after taste.

"Ok. You wanna explain that kiss I just saw with Arthur? And don't lie, even if I didn't see it it's written all over your face. You look like your one step away from falling into his bed. Which I assume you know can never happen" she sat on the couch and folded her legs under her as Giselle's expression changed from confused to guilty and back to confused again.

"How…"

"Oh I have eyes Giselle" Regina snapped.

Giselle's expression hardened. "What I do in my personal time or who I do anything with is my business and not yours"

Regina gritted her teeth.

"So that's what you want to do is it? Pretend to be half of what you want to be. He's king Giselle, he is never going to leave his wife for you. And before you start, I can assure you, being a mistress to a married man is no fun. Not in our old world and certainly not in this one"

Giselle took a large gulp of cider.

"Why do you care what I do?"

Regina paused. "I know the road your going to go down if you keep this thing up with Arthur. I know what it's like to be desperate for some love and to think that something's wrong with you…like you exist on a separate land away from everyone else"

Giselle didn't look at her for a very long time. She seemed to be thinking hard on what to say next.

"Regina. I was conceived by an affair. My mother ran off with my father and left my other father with Bae. The only reason I am still alive was because my father saw me as a way to punish my Dad…doesn't matter about regrets or blame or how he felt or even if he could feel. I know that he was hurt when she left. I am a product of an extra-marital affair. Doesn't take a genius to figure out karma is paying me back by making me the catalyst of another. And anyways…" she took another gulp of cider.

"He's the king and you need him if your ever going to find Merlin. You and I both know if I'm the price that has to be paid for Emma to return to normal, Snow, David and even my Dad are going to ask me to pay it. And…and I wont deny it's nice to be on the end of attraction rather than curiosity"

She drained her drink.

"I'm a big girl anyways. I can take care of myself. And the thing is I somehow don't see myself saying no. I know that's horrible but…" And then she gave a tiny self depreciating shrug.

Regina took a deep breath trying to process that information and universally not blow up her house in rage at the same time.

"Firstly" she said waving her hand and refilling their drinks though this time she chose something soft for Giselle. "There is no way on God's green earth that the Charming's or Killian would ever ask you to _prostitute…_ " and here she practically spat the word. "Yourself to save Emma. Hell I don't even think that Emma herself would allow you to do that. Secondly, you might enjoy the attention but I promise you that this road that your thinking of dipping a toe in will not be an easy thing. The first time…your first time…it shouldn't be with someone that cannot love you back"

Regina paused to take a drink as she tried not to think of Leopold. He had tried, in the beginning she would give the old man credit. He had tried to be a husband to her in every sense of the word but…she had been grieving Daniel and plotting with every sense of the word on finding out a way to destroy his daughter. Also Leopold had for the majority of their marriage been in love with his dead wife or ensuring his daughters spoilt whim was upheld. The drunken fumbling's and the faint stirrings and the half hearted pats and promises of more had been a cold shower after the way Daniel used to take her in his arms and make her gasp until she couldn't breathe easy. She understood what I was like as well to think of yourself as worthless because of your past. Look at her mother.

She didn't know much about Rumple's first wife. She knew the facts presented by Hook but…she had to admit she was curious. Leaving Henry had ripped her apart and she couldn't understand how Milah had left Neal when it was clear that her boy had needed her. And Killian…oh Regina was going to give guyliner a piece of her mind when she saw him. His daughter was all but being groomed to be a married man's mistress and having a healthy identity crisis to boot and the rum soaked sod was probably drinking himself to death with the Charming's.

Times like this you really needed Rumple back.

Giselle was looking down at her hands and Regina realised that this might be the first time she had ever seen Giselle look…young. The girl had gone from carefree teenager in the first curse, to confused adolescent, to a daughter with two father's who both had different views of the past and a lot of ghosts between them, to a woman who had found a brother, lost a brother, near as damn it lost her father, had had no mother whatsoever (at least not really) and was now ready for love and found herself with nobody to talk to.

And she did look young. Looking at her now, she looked every bit of her seventeen years. Regina could remember looking like that a lifetime ago. She could remember it all.

"Look, you know how I say evil is made not born" at the nod she continued. "Then I want you to believe me when I tell you that just because you were born out of a love affair with a married woman does not mean that you have to have a love affair with a married man. And I think you knew that anyway. I think Giselle if you want my opinion that you know what to do in this situation, trust your instincts and…and let it all catch up with you. Nobody can deny that since Elsa left life has thrown one thing at you after another. Have you considered…grieving, Neal, Rumple, Rumple again."

Giselle bit her lip and when she looked up her dark eyes were very overbright.

"I don't know how to do that." She said finally. "I've always kept my feelings to myself. I thought, I think that was just easier. Bottle it up and then go angry. Used to work but in the Enchanted Forest when it was just the two of us…before Belle…I was never angry, nothing could ruin this little bubble we had. I was safe, even you didn't bother me-no offense. And then one day I woke up and it was gone. Same here really. One day I was Scarlett Gold, next I was Giselle Jones and Henry wanted to tell the world my story despite me not wanting to know it"

Regina could emphasise with that. Intimately.

"Look" she said smoothing down her skirt as a wave of both empathy and understanding came crashing down on her, well drastic times she supposed required drastic action, and one eye on the girl meant one eye on the situation. "Why don't you stay here for a couple of days. I'll make up one of the spare rooms. Have a bath and I'll leave a sleeping potion by the bed. Get some sleep."

"And if that doesn't help?" Giselle asked quietly.

"Well…well we will cross that bridge when we get to it" Regina said quickly standing up. There was only so long she could be sugar, sweetness and light after all. She had to go and deal with another moody teenager after all. If worse came to worse then she supposed that she could always brew up another potion like she had done when Henry had been born and she had been worried sick over Emma Swan, even then.

Giselle stood up and Regina concentrated she waved her hand and the bed was made the bath running and some of Giselle's clothes were in the closet. Giselle grinned.

"Thanks Regina" she said sounding more like her regular self than she had done in a long time. It was Regina however that crossed the room and pulled her into a hug. She figured the girl needed it more than Regina did. Giselle returned it tentatively and for a second Regina was reminded that perhaps this could have been her daughter once upon a time. Perhaps one day it might be Robin's daughter. Who knew?

Fate she had learned after all was a bitch.

It was only after Giselle disappeared upstairs and Regina had poured herself a healthy measure of something stronger that the doorbell rang again.

Magical instinct along with a healthy sense of dark magic told her who it was this time.

Emma fucking Swan.

Oh yeah Regina thought grimly moving towards the door. One thing was perfectly clear.

Fate was a bitch indeed.

* * *

Camelot. Giselle's Perspective.

They had spent the morning in the palace. Or well the now happy Charming's were. They had been…well…odder than usual lately. More…chipper. Which considering that their daughter was the Dark One was not something she had anticipated. But then again the Charming's were strange. Too strange for Giselle to attempt to understand. She had far bigger things to do.

Today she was pretty sure she was going to instigate a prison break.

She had thought long and hard about the wendigo problem and had decided that regardless of weather or not Axel was a problem to Arthur she just didn't care. She remembered intimately what It was like when she had been alone and her father had been in prison. And to be honest she knew it was only going to be a matter of time before something happened. Emma was dangerously close to losing her grip on what was left of her fragile sanity and Giselle personally did not believe that Arthur's hospitality would last if she blew up his castle.

And really, anyone who left their security this lax deserved to get robbed.

And she figured magic didn't factor in for more…modern touches.

In all honesty she stole David's gun.

And that was another thing. Roland and Henry were in and out of every room like there was no concept of privacy and while Henry might be somewhat sensible Roland would have no problem thinking a gun was a toy. So why David had thought it was a good idea to simply hide it in his shirt draw she had no idea.

She was walking towards the dungeons gun and bag containing anything that came from her world (phone, iPod, tampons and lipstick, specifically-you know the essentials) hidden under her dress when she heard someone call her name.

It was Arthur.

He was beaming rather suspiciously. Nobody was that happy. Not even Snow White.

"Lady Giselle. I was wondering If I might have a word with you" and without waiting for a reply he simply tucked her arm in his and carried on walking.

Men.

"I know that things are a bit confusing here. But I wanted to assure you personally that if you wanted to stay here you would always have a bed. With me"

What the fuck?

Giselle blinked at him and then tilted her head to the side as she got it. It was…flattering she supposed. Also strange, and dangerous. Her Dad would probably run Arthur through if she wasn't misreading this.

"Are you asking me to be your mistress? Just so we understand each other."

Arthur beamed.

Oh fuck.

Casting her mind around wildly Giselle decided flattery was the easiest option. God knows Arthur looked like the type of king that had been brought up on flattery.

"Thank you for the offer your Majesty" and ew…there was the eyes that darkened at the title. "But I must think upon this. It's no little thing you ask of me"

Arthur bowed and kissed her hand then and Giselle leaned back against the wall torn between speechless amusement and the need to go and find her Dad and demand he give her a hug.

"Ellie"

Oh. Roland.

"Hey kiddo where you'd come from?" she asked looking around. Roland was a sweet kid but he had a brain and if this got back to anyone then she would never hear the end of it. He was clutching his stuffed monkey. Most of his stuff was probably still at Granny's.

"Around. Can I come with you? Daddy is in the forest. Gina is with…Snow White and Belle and Emma are gone. And I cannot find Henry anywhere. Please!?"

He sounded so woebegone that Giselle felt her heart melt.

"On one condition kiddo. You give me a hug first"

Roland threw his arms around her and Giselle picked him up with a groan hearing him giggle. She hugged him tight trying to get her breathing under control.

"Roland" she said once she had manged to get a grip and let him go. "Can you keep a secret?"

Roland beamed.

"Ok. Well have you got all the stuff you need from the castle. Because I got a feeling that we are not gonna be able to come back once we do this"

Again another nod. Giselle grinned.

"Ok then. Were gonna go break someone out of prison"

And that was how she found herself shooting the lock of Axel's cell. She was right. Medieval means failed somewhat to modern means.

Axel swore like a sailor when he came out of the shadows. Roland giggled.

Giselle opened the door.

"Come on then. We haven't got all day"

"Woman what the hell are you…what the hell is that" he said chained hands shying away from the gun.

"I'll explain it later but do you want to be free or not?"

Axel eyed her for another second and then stuck out his hands.

Giselle shot the chains off (she was surprised she could hit it but didn't think it prudent to say so) and then Axel's hands were free from the wall. There was still the cuff supressing his abilities but she figured one problem at a time.

She bit her lip. Chances are two shots had raised attention.

"You know a backway out of here?"

Axel grinned. "Course I do. Backway through the dungeons and then you'll have to take the cuffs of me. Then I can run"

He grinned looking more alive than she had ever seen him. Giselle took the cuff of grinning back.

There was a pause as Axel's hands started to glow a little as claws extended from his hands. "Are you Wolverine?" Roland asked. Giselle patted him on the back shaking her head at Axel's confusion. There was a sound of running footsteps and then Axel slammed his hands through the wall with enough magic to shake the whole castle.

And the wall was gone.

He turned and he had morphed eyes and claws and teeth.

"He is Wolverine!" Roland shouted bouncing up and down. "Yay! I knew he wasn't just trapped in the movies"

Oh dear.

"Come on" Giselle said picking Roland up and hugging him on her hip. "Hold on tight Roland and don't let go"

She didn't know what was going to happen or why that damned monkey was sticking her in the eye but she did confess to a little scream when Axel picked up the two of them and slung them over his back. Giselle manged to get two feet around his ribs and Roland wrapped one hand around Axel's neck and one around hers and then they were off running so fast Giselle couldn't see where they were going. Roland was cheering in her ear and all she could think of was that there was a very good chance Robin and her Dad were going to be extremely pissed off.

They crashed into the diner clearing in what seemed like minutes. Giselle fell of his back Roland scrambling up to see Axel roaring, Henry looking shocked with an open mouth.

With another roar Axel was off running in the forest before Giselle could stop him.

"What the fuck was that?" Henry screamed looking torn between horror and amazement. Henry was there in an instant pulling her to her feet.

"That" Giselle groaned feeling her back protest. "Was Axel. Also I might not be able to go back to Camelot cause I might have orchestrated a prison break and some property damage"

Henry snorted.

"Wolverine Henry he exists" Roland cried.

Henry looked like Christmas had come early.

"Axel is a wendigo Roland not Wolverine" Giselle said wincing. "Where is everyone?"

"Zelena is inside being guarded by Granny and Leroy. When they heard the roaring they locked the door but I was already out. Your Dad's with my mom…Emma…and Roland's dad's with my Mom…Regina. I don't know where Belle or my grandparents are."

At that moment the door opened and Granny came out with her crossbow.

"All clear?" she asked at the nod she got back she nodded herself. "Roland chocolate milk needs to be drunk before it goes off. Think you can manage it?"

Roland nodded and beamed still clutching that damn monkey. Giselle dropped to the bench and reached into her bag. She unloaded the gun and reached for the hipflask of contraband she had stolen from the ball.

Henry was still watching her.

"I think your Dad wants to move in with my Mom. I think it will be good for her you know…we named it Operation Light Swan. Thought it might be good for her to have something to focus on you know the Good Fight and all. Your Dad didn't say anything but…I think he was hoping you'd consider it too" And then he shoved a paper in front of her. Clearly he had been practising this speech and had said it all in a rush in order not to chicken out.

Giselle raised an eyebrow wincing as she heard another roar in the distance.

"Ok" she said taking the newspaper.

"Ok as In I'll take a look or ok as in yes?"

"Ok as in yes but I will take a look"

Henry's eyebrows raised and then he grinned and threw his arms around Giselle.

"I knew one day we'd be a family" he said beaming.

Giselle sat on the log for a long time after that wondering just what it was that she had gotten herself into. The air was still and split more than once with another gleeful roar and she found that she couldn't stop herself from smiling.

One could almost forget about Arthur.

Almost being the operative word.

* * *

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

Regina had unceremoniously told her she was to stay for a couple of days and Giselle rather shamelessly took advantage of the chance to get out of the house that was now occupied by Belle and herself.

Regina had left the house with Robin and she had taken Roland with them, they had received a call from David about a magical toadstool but in all honesty Giselle wasn't listening, toadstools didn't burn she got that much and Arthur was somehow entangled up in it and then she had switched off too tired to care. Henry had confined himself to his bedroom and Giselle went to the kitchen to see if Regina had something that wasn't caffeinated when she felt a presence behind her.

It was Emma. It was the first time that Giselle had seen her since she had come back to Storybrooke and she…well…compared to other Dark Ones at least she was better dressed.

"Hey Emma" she said finally.

Emma watched her for a second and tilted her head to the side.

"You look sad"

"You care?" Giselle asked pouring the hot water into the mug with lemon. She had been around too many Dark Ones for her hands to be anything other than steady.

"Of course I do" there was something in Emma's voice. A genuine sincerity that made her look up and stare at the woman who once upon a time might have been her stepmother.

There was genuine concern written underneath the hard mask. Huh.

"You have a plan don't you" she asked quietly. "No way do you hurt Henry and not have a plan"

Emma nodded once and she reached out with her hand as if she wanted to hold hands with Giselle. Giselle reached out too but their skin didn't touch. It was more of an understanding between the two, the past wasn't forgiven but Giselle felt that perhaps they might have understood each other more in that moment than they would ever do.

"I hope you succeed" Giselle said truthfully.

Emma smiled. A genuine smile too.

"It will" she said. "And then this fight is over. I promise you"

And with that she was gone.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-In Camelot Giselle and the rest of the Storybrooke heroes see Arthur for what he is with horrifying consequences as lines are finally drawn in the sand between their hosts and them. Meanwhile as Giselle finds strength in a person she never thought she'd find strength in again a new light is shown on the early days where the Dark One both in the curse and the before had a daughter.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	46. The Dark One's Daughter

**Hi, so here is another chapter to add to the update. We only have one more chapter of the first arc of Season 5 and then we are into the Underworld arc and of course all of the drama that that brought. I might try to get another chapter in after this update but as i am sorting out moving out of uni dorms that might be a bit of a pipe dream-that being said i will try.**

 **This chapter has more of a look on Gold/Giselle's relationship including his perspective of the first time he met Emma and the curse broke for him.**

 **There is a bit of fighting in this chapter and some stuff that can be described as abuse but please keep that in mind if your reading this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine**

 **And please read and review.**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 46-The Dark One's Daughter

In Camelot Giselle and the rest of the Storybrooke heroes see Arthur for what he is with horrifying consequences as lines are drawn in the sand between their hosts and them. Meanwhile as Giselle finds strength in a person she never thought she'd find strength in again (in Storybrooke) a new light is shown on the early days where the Dark One both in the curse and the before had a daughter.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _I hold it true, whatever befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most. 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"_** **(Alfred Lord Tennyson)**

Camelot. Giselle's Perspective.

She had not initially planned to go back to Camelot. She had just been in the woods spending her time trying to find her Dad (and tell him she may have been a part of a prison break with a five year old accomplice) and while she was at it-try and find Axel who was still roaring in the woods, she had just seen Emma coming towards her in the distance after all but then the next thing she knew it was like the rug had been pulled out from under her and she found herself up against the tree with her hands chained together and her Dad staring back at her worriedly.

"Ow" she said leaning back against the tree. Her Dad was next to her his own hand and hook bound and judging by the expression on his face he was royally pissed off. Giselle winced as bark hit her back again and she looked around taking in everyone with the exception of Belle, Emma and Henry chained to a tree and a smug Zelena dressed in black looking slightly more put together than she had done previously…and next to her…was Arthur.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Arthur was looking at her in a rather strange way. Giselle took that to mean he knew about the hole Axel had blown apart in his castle.

"Hello Lady Giselle" Arthur said with a rather strange grin. Giselle shifted a bit against the tree. "Or should I say, The Dark One's Daughter"

Oh fuck.

Her Dad shifted next to her.

"You should have taken my offer when you had the chance" Arthur said.

Giselle raised an eyebrow. She was trying desperately to show that Arthur wasn't getting under her skin but she found that he was and more to the point she couldn't see a way out of this. It was odd. Giselle had never been one to let her emotions get ahead of her but right now she was scared in a way she had never been. She wanted Emma to come and pull some Hail Mary out of the magic bag. She wanted…she wanted her father to come out of his coma and help her.

"Offer?" David asked reading the gazes between the two of them. The gasp from Regina spoke volumes. Giselle thought that as a Queen in an unhappy marriage she might have some inkling of what a King could ask in a way that nobody else here could. She caught the woman's eye and gave a little shrug that said she was both flattered and creeped out by the attention she had been given but right now was leaning more towards the latter. Regina stared at her and Giselle got the feeling that she hadn't got a word of what she was trying to tell her.

Typical.

It wasn't like she had had many men interested in her before. And it wasn't like she had a mother to tell her what to do in this situation. And that there and then was a whole other conflict of interest that she had buried in a box long ago and had no plans (or so she had thought) of opening it ever again.

Bloody hell.

"Really" she said turning to face Arthur. "I'm chained to a tree with the rest of my family because I refused to become your mistress?"

The reaction was much as she expected.

"You what?!" Her Dad yelled so much fury in his voice that Giselle didn't blame Arthur for flinching somewhat. "You did…oh you just wait till I get out of these cuffs you bastard. She's sixteen you piece of filth"

Giselle didn't have the hear to tell him she was actually seventeen and that he had missed her birthday by three days. There were slightly more important things than a day she hadn't even remembered about until ten seconds ago. Time seemed to move differently in this place even if they were parallel in terms of how the world worked in comparison to Storybrooke.

"And another thing" her Dad carried on as he continued telling Arthur exactly what he would do with his hook (even Zelena looked amused).

"Hook mate" Robin said shooting Arthur a rather dirty look. "Focus on the problem at hand yeah?"

Her father snorted again glowering at Arthur. Giselle felt rather touched.

"And that was before she broke one of my prisoners out of my castle and helped him escape. A wendigo no less. And there's a hole in my castle" Arthur said sounding more and more like a child-something that Giselle was finding entirely unsurprising.

"Good" David said. "I hope the whole thing comes down. She's family you creep"

Oh Giselle thought, that was rather nice.

Arthur let out a high pitched laugh and then before she could do anything he had leaned down and kissed her.

Giselle gave him five seconds before he knee caught him in the groin with enough force to…well…ensure there was no little Arthur's coming along any time soon. Arthur howled swearing like a naval officer on shore leave.

Her Dad was twisting in his cuffs again, Robin was half cheering, Regina was grinning with that feral grin she had whenever she was feeling particularly evil minded, but Giselle looked up and for a second caught Zelena's eye. The older witch seemed to be hiding her grin and for the second they locked eyes with each other Giselle didn't feel the usual anger and hate that followed her whenever she thought of her brother's killer.

Then Arthur pulled out his sword and the back of his hilt came crashing down on the side of Giselle's face with enough force she fell sideways. Blood was dripping out of her nose and mouth and her face was so bruised she felt like crying. To hell with that-she was crying.

Her Dad was swearing, Robin and David joining the fray and Giselle couldn't understand why they were being so nice to her when in the past (particularly with the Charming's) she had been so mean to them. Instead she let her hair cover her and cried a little.

"Gizzy!" her Dad shouted and it was the old nickname that made her snap out of it and look up through-well her one eye seeing as it hurt her to look out of the other one. Her Dad's face was morphed into an expression of pain but he managed a small nod and a smile when he saw her and Giselle nodded back trying to be brave even though she just wanted to collapse onto the floor and cry herself to sleep.

And that was when Emma arrived.

And in all honestly Giselle couldn't remember much after that.

* * *

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

The second Roland had seen her attempting to make tea in the morning he had hugged her. Giselle had hugged him back smiling. Roland was too young to understand anything that was going on and it was his innocence that made her smile. Once upon a time she would have given anything to be that innocent. Even when she had been living in the Dark Castle there was always the knowledge that everything was not ok-that there was always going to be something out there ready to pounce even if she had been wrong about the who, the what, the why…

Roland had no such illusions.

Henry too cracked a smile. His eyes looked suspiciously red rimmed again but when he hugged her for some reason Giselle found her arms coming back around him. He was despite everything her nephew and family was a rare thing right now. When Henry let go he turned to the pancakes that Regina had made and dug in with more of a hunger than Giselle had never seen him possess.

Regina came down looking somewhat flustered as if she had been half getting dressed and then had been undressed again. She was smirking slightly until she caught Giselle's eye and frowned. Giselle smirked over her mug debating if she was really going to go through on the late night promise she had made to finally cut caffeine out of her diet. There was a pause where she stood there and then she decided that she might be in the way.

"Regina look I can move back to Belle's…"

"Oh no you don't" Regina said looking up from where she was cutting up Roland's pancakes. "I want you hear until the situation with Emma and…well…you know…is dealt with"

By that she meant Arthur.

Giselle wanted to argue but she couldn't help but feel safe at Regina's in a way that she had not since her father had been banished over the town line.

"Please stay Elle" Roland said around a mouthful of pancake. "Yeah" Henry said suddenly "Please stay…Auntie Giselle"

Giselle nearly choked on her tea. Regina snorted into hers. Henry grinned.

"Oh boy" she said as Roland passed her the napkin with another dimpled smile.

Regina's phone went off and she frowned. "Henry, Roland on your way to school" she shot Giselle a look. "I know you were taking some kind of extended sabbatical from school since your father was…" she dithered and Giselle took that to mean she did not approve but really? School right now was the least of her concerns and it wasn't like she needed to graduate.

"I am going to go and find my Dad and…I suppose talk to him" she said finally. Regina beamed. "Good. And pack a bag and you can stay in the guest bedroom. It's nice having this house full again"

Giselle took that to mean that she remembered what it was like when Emma had custody of Henry and she was considered the villain stalking Storybrooke.

She had only just made it outside of the house and down the road when she felt something behind her she whirled around fully expecting Arthur with some sort of offer on the table that she couldn't-or he wouldn't let her refuse but instead it was her father. Rumplestilskin.

He was leaning on his cane and he looked exhausted but his smile was real and it was the soft one that he had reserved for her for those moments when it was just the two of them. And he was alive. He was awake…

He was hear.

It took her a second and then she launched herself into his arms and she found that the tears she had been holding back couldn't stop pouring out of her. What was even more surprising was that her father, who usually was stoic to the core despite everything that had happened over the last few months wrapped both of his arms around her and held her tight as finally for the first time in Camelot, Giselle finally felt safe.

* * *

The Dark Castle. Before the First Curse. Rumpelstiltskin's Perspective.

There was no reason for him to care about that brat was currently in the cot next to his wheel. No reason whatsoever. He kept reminding himself of that but the babe had already kicked that damn blanket away and was now kicking her feat in the air a piece of gold straw in her hands that seemed to have captured her attention and had at least allowed herself to stop crying.

Rumple stared at her again. He couldn't help it. She was a rather cute baby, not as cute as Bae had been but he supposed he was a bit biased when it came to that perspective. But he found that when he looked at her he could see the resemblance. It was he thought to himself, the reason why he could not reach into that child's chest and end it all.

That and it was pretty drastic…Rumple might be cruel and dark and horrid and a whole slew of names he had been called over the years but there were lines that even he did not dare to cross and killing a child was without question, one of them.

So that just left the child in the crib.

Why had he agreed to see this child at a regular basis? He wasn't a parent to this child. This was nothing but Milah's replacement for the child she had abandoned. Therefore, it was not his responsibility. So why did he care so much? This child was the embodiment of the very man who had ruined his family. And now his child was in his possession. It should be the happiest moment of his long life.

And it wasn't.

There was a pause where he looked down at the potion he was making. It was drastic, and it was something if he was being honest he never considered doing even when the pain of losing Bae had become almost unbearable but he was now struggling with even the simplest of magical tasks and it was all because he was worrying about that damn baby and that would never do.

He downed the potion designed to take away his troubles in one thinking with a tad iconic touch that he might drop it off at Regina' s castle if it worked. The Gods knew if anyone needed a pick me up it was that woman.

It worked.

Rumple moved closer to the crib, the baby had stopped making any noise and was now looking up at him with dark eyes, Milah's eyes…Bae's eyes.

"Hello Giselle" he said picking her up (though he didn't bring her closer-somethings never did change) "What shall we do today?"

* * *

Storybrooke. During the First Cure. The Night Emma Swan came to Town. Rumple's Perspective.

Emma.

Emma.

Emma.

Emma Swan.

Finally.

Twenty-eight years and it all came down to Henry Mills looking for his mother. Rumple really should have given that child more credit.

She looked like her parents he noted. She had all the grace of Snow White, but she also had the steely determination of her father, Prince Charming. There was an edge to her as well. Like the dear Miss Swan had suffered over the course of her lifetime and Rumple knew enough to know that, that might work in his favour.

He had been asleep for a long time and now it was time to get to work. Things had to put in place. Regina, Emma Swan, the boy who was beginning to know too much. Hopefully he didn't know about Rumple's true identity. Whatever book the boy had might shed some light on stories that Rumple did not need published. And heavens forbid if it included stories about Scarlett.

He stopped dead. Scarlett.

No. Giselle.

His daughter.

No. Hook's daughter.

Blast it all to hell. Scarlett Gold, the girl he had memories of raising, of tucking into bed and reading Harry Potter too, the girl who had rang him at school in a panic because she had needed tampons. _His daughter_.

Now with the arrival of Emma Swan the moniker of Dad would go to some rum-soaked toy boy who had taken his wife, humiliated him and tried to replace his son with another child. And that Rumple _would not_ stand for.

The pirate was not part of Storybrooke's occupants of that Rumple was sure of. He would know. He never did forget a name even if he did forget a face more than a couple of times. Someone like Hook would stand out even in a town like this and besides the bastard knew more than one way to keep himself safe of that the Dark One was sure of.

There was something to be said for ignorance. It had if he was being honest with himself allowed him a truly good twenty eight years being a father a chance that had been denied him too many times.

So for now he was still Giselle…no…Scarlett's father. Nothing was going to change until it had to. Emma Swan might be here but she was certainly not the ready born saviour she would have been if her mother had gone through that damn bit of tree with her. Henry would have an uphill battle fighting against a mother who did not want to believe and a mother that would do everything in her power to never make her believe.

Rumple found he did not envy the boy that task whatsoever.

He walked home wincing. He might not have the painful limp now he remembered everything but he still did not have magic and the ache in his knee still remained.

He opened the door to his house and saw Gise…Scarlett sat in her bedroom having just come out of the bathroom. She had tied her dark hair back and she looked for all intents and purposes the same kid he had sent off to school this morning with a kiss and a coffee.

And there and then Rumplestilskin decided that Hook was not having this. This was his girl. Giselle and Scarlett the two of them were both his daughters from the day he had drank that potion to forget about what Hook had done to him. This was his daughter and he was going to fight for her, for her brother and for that damn pirate to stay out of their lives for as long as it took.

"Everything ok?" she asked padding into his room where he had set down his cane. He jumped a little.

"Fine sweetheart" he chatted a little about inconsequential things that had happened during his day, about Emma Swan and revelled in the blankness that crossed his daughter's face at the name. It seemed he, the boy Henry (and probably Regina come to think of it) would be the only people that knew Emma Swan's real identity in this town.

"Goodnight" Giselle…no Scarlett…he reminded himself sternly. Scarlett Gold, said to him as she closed the door and went back to her own room.

He got undressed thinking quietly before he came to a conclusion just as he could hear the clock tower chime away for the first time in twenty-eight years signalling that time was running out, for Regina, for him, for the comfortable lives that people had led for over two decades.

Scarlett Gold. Giselle Jones. Either way was his daughter. The Dark One's Daughter.

And he thought firmly as sleep finally claimed him. No boy, no saviour or no dratted pirate was going to take that of him without a fight.

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 **Next Chapter-Giselle shares her story with her father in Storybrooke as Emma's explanation leads to a heartbreaking remembrance of Camelot and what happened. Giselle makes a decision that the rest of Storybrooke disagree with, comes face to face with another Dark One and suffers another soul-crushing blow leading to a trip to the one place where both the Pirate's Daughter and the Dark One's Daughter know she has a lot of ghosts.**

 **And let me know what you think. I will try and update when i am back from my holiday. **


	47. Requiem

**Hi, so i know i said i might not get another chapter published but i worked hard and this chapter is done concluding the Dark Swan arc. Again point of views are a bit scattered and we have four chapters for the Underworld arc and then Season 5 is completed.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **With any luck i will be able to start publishing as soon as i back to my normal computer i will be able to write but please keep in mind i do not have any WiFi for the next couple of weeks.**

 **Please read and review.**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 47-Requiem

Giselle shares her story with her father in Storybrooke as Emma's explanation of past events leads to a heartbreaking remembrance of what happened in Camelot. Giselle makes a decision that the residents of Storybrooke disapprove off, comes face to face with another Dark One and suffers another soul crushing blow leading to a trip that both the Pirate's Daughter and the Dark One's Daughter knows she has a lot of buried ghosts.

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 ** _"_** ** _It has been said that time heals all wounds. I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting it's sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessons but it is never gone"_** **(Rose Kennedy)**

Camelot. Giselle's Perspective.

Emma used their magic to drag them all back from the dinner Giselle was aware of that much. Her body was still in a daze from Arthur's sword crashing down into her face and her knees buckled as soon as she hit solid ground. Her eye throbbed and all she wanted to do was sleep away the throbbing and the aching and the pain and pretend that nothing had happened.

As soon as she hit the ground a hand was their hoisting her up. It was her Dad. Giselle decided not to comment on the fact that this was one of the few conversations that they had had since they had arrived in Camelot. She was too busy wincing everytime the left side of her face moved.

"Fucking bastard" her Dad hissed reaching out to tenderly brush a lock of hair out of her bloody eye. "I should take my hook and ram…"

"Yes, Guyliner we know Arthur evil" Regina said with a wince and her usual sarcasm mixed into one. "As soon as I get us to a safe place then I can use my magic to heal Giselle but right now we have a bigger problem. It's not gonna take long for Arthur and my sister to regain their footing and Arthur has an army, we on the other hand have myself seeing as Emma cannot use her magic which doesn't give us a lot of time. I say we use that flame to get home where neither one of them has the upper ground should they follow.

In Giselle's opinion that sounded like a rather good plan and she decided to go and take a seat in a booth because she was still in a daze and unsure if her legs could stand to hold her up any longer.

And at that moment the door opened and Axel walked in.

Well that really couldn't happen at a worse time she thought, especially considering that she was bleeding and he looked like he had been through a hedge backwards, covered in mud and what she sincerely hoped was animal blood of an already old and sick animal that didn't have a whole life ahead of it because otherwise Snow White would be unbearable.

"Woah" Axel said when he had David's sword pointed at him. "Relax Princeling I'm with Ella and the little rugrat" he pointed at Roland.

"It's true Dad" Giselle said looking back up. Axel's eyebrows shot to the top of his head when he saw her. "Axel's…a semi good guy I suppose I broke him out of Camelot"

"We broke him out of Camelot" Roland interjected swiftly from where he was hiding behind Henry's leg as if rather insistent he wasn't left out for any reason. Giselle nodded because she supposed…the kid had been there.

Her Dad, Emma, David and Robin all looked confused. Regina just looked board. Merlin looked worried. "My lady I don't think breaking out one of his kind was the right thing to do…they are extremely dangerous. I don't agree with what Arthur has done but I do confess he might be right to contain that thing"

"That thing" Giselle said feeling annoyed and quite frankly fed up with the magic people thinking that they knew best.

"Is called Axel, he is a wendigo yes and a human being who did not deserve to have his family murdered and then chained and starved by some bastard with a god complex because you couldn't do your job properly. I am sick to death of being told what to do by you people in this shithole of a world thinking that you know what's best, you were a damn tree who needed the help from us because your magic was so sub-par you couldn't free yourself, and we all got captured because of you so how about you shut up and sit down until we call upon you to do your job. Or you can walk out of that door and take your chances with your pupil?"

She titled her head to the side and pointed to the door. Merlin looked stunned. Emma and Regina were looking elsewhere but Giselle knew they were both desperate to laugh and Merlin sat down on a chair looking like he wanted to argue but thought better of it. Giselle stood up and winced again. Axel choose this exact moment to lean over to her father and say with a sort of teasing lit to his tone. "Quite the truth teller this kid of yours. Stunning and honest" and then he winked in her direction.

David smothered a laugh looking like all of his Christmas wishes had come true at once as her father turned to look between her and Axel with a horrified expression on his face.

Whatever was going to be said next however was derailed abruptly when her Dad opened his mouth to say something, started bleeding from his neck and then promptly collapsed his body seizing in agony. Giselle dropped to her knees beside him her mouth open in horror but found no words would come out when she looked upon her Dad…her Dad…dying in Emma's arms while the blonde woman looked around grasping for help that wouldn't come unless she made the ultimate sacrifice.

When the word Dark One came to mind Giselle stared at Emma and knew the horror of what might be the only way to save the only man that the two of them loved in different ways. That was forever going to be a part of them, that losing was just unthinkable.

"Do it" Giselle said feeling tears fall down her face. She knew what she was signing her father over to. A lifetime of struggle with something that he had long ago let go, becoming the thing that he hated but in all honestly if it was between death and darkness she knew which one she would choose-everytime.

Snow White was pulling on Emma's arm and Giselle turned and pulled the dagger out of a stunned Regina's belt and handed it over. Between the two of them her Dad was still seizing. Emma took her hand over the dagger for a second and then there was an infinite amount of time between the two of them as they understood what they were about to do. And then Emma was gone, her and her Dad disappeared with Excalibur and the dagger and Giselle sat still gasping her sobs out as Axel who had crossed the room when he had seen her fall pulled her to her feet.

"Giselle" Snow White said in an appalled voice that made the fear and anguish in her stomach turn to fury. "What did you just do that for? Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

She turned around ready finally to punch the woman in the face when the purple smoke crashed through the window taking them away from this cursed land.

The last thing she remembered was Axel's hand on her waist.

And then Giselle Jones woke up in Storybrooke with no memory of the last six weeks.

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Storybrooke. Rumple's Perspective.

If the bombshell that some dratted King wanted his barely of age daughter in bed as a glorified whore from the middle ages wasn't enough then Emma Swan quite frankly was pushing what was left of his sanity right out of the window.

And considering Rumple had spent the last three days being hunted down by a red head with a bow who was determined to make him brave-to say nothing of Giselle's tearful bombshell-his sanity and therefore his temper was already pushed to the limit.

Oh when he got his magic back he was going to personally ensure Arthur paid for that withdrawn look on Giselle's face and he was personally going to ensure the Pirate now the Dark One (and that was worth sobbing over because how that incompetent boy toy of his ex-wife's was going to harness that magic just made him want to bang his head against the wall until he was bleeding) was going to get a good kick up the backside for the shoddy parenting that Giselle had been convinced was good parenting because the damn idiot had told her he was prepared to try.

If this was Hook's idea of parenting (allowing his daughter to be almost groomed by a married man who had no concept of age of consent or decency or…that this was the 1500s and allow it to happen because Miss Swan was now the Dark One) then Rumple felt very secure about the mistakes he had made both with Giselle and with Bae.

Now Giselle was pacing up and down her hands on her hips as she tried to comprehend the information that they had been given. Personally, Rumple thought that Emma Swan's plan of cutting down Zelena was perfectly justified and honestly quite ingenious if you got over the whole destroying dark magic thing (and if Rumple had his way then that was certainly not going to plan) but the heroes were justifiably horrified. Even Regina which left Rumple slightly disappointed in his favourite pupil.

Giselle had taken to pacing up and down the hallway as if she was in some mental debate. She had done this since Emma had asked for the cuff to be removed. Rumple personally thought that he'd be better off himself with no magic against a one handed pirate who was going off emotion rather than sense, rather than depending on Emma Swan for help.

Giselle finished pacing and then stalked back into the room pushing back Henry against the wall who had entered the room. She took Emma's hand with a wild expression that Rumple knew intimately that she had gotten from her mother. Probably Milah from the Underworld trying to haunt him for the rest of his life-just his luck he thought moodily.

But anyway Giselle reached out with Emma's arm and tugged the magic cuff off.

Emma stared at her. Giselle held it in her hands and then nodded.

"Go do what you gotta do" was all she said.

Rumple was about to ask his daughter if she had lost her mind but thankfully Snow White did it for him and all he could do was sit there one hand encased in Belle's and look at the woman who was his daughter who was staring at Snow White with an expression of complete calm bordering on the slightly manic expression that again she had inherited from her mother.

A part of him gleefully knew this was going to be good.

"What do you think you are doing?" Snow White asked. Giselle raised an eyebrow.

"Oh no my girl you don't get to act like the ice queen here. You've got one father trying to kill the other and your putting your trust in the Dark One?"

Clearly she had forgotten Emma was still there.

Giselle took one measured step forwards so she was staring down at Snow White. The high heeled shoes seemed to do wonders for this sort of confrontation.

"Your right" Giselle said with a soft kind of tone her bother used to adopted whenever he was disappointed or trying to make a point about something Rumple thought fondly.

"My Dad is trying to kill my father, and I do trust the Dark One more than I trust you. You see I know that whatever happened in Camelot there was no way this happened to Dad without me knowing about it as I'm sure Emma will confirm also we are kinda in this mess because you and your husband decided to play God so if you don't mind I'm gonna put my trust in something other than you people. Also I trust Emma, I trust that she loves my Dad and I trust that she'll find a way to save the day weather or not she uses dark magic or light-like she has done for you guys so many times"

She curled her lip at Snow White again reminding Rumple of her mother and then she turned to a stunned looking Emma and winked.

Interesting.

And with that she turned around and caught his eye. "I'm gonna go speak to him while you stay inside and everyone else attempts to cobble a plan" she held the bracelet up in the air. "Also, I'm gonna take this with me"

"You think that's wise?" Regina asked. Giselle shrugged without turning around pulling on her dark green jacket. "No" she said finally. "But I think we all know that I'm probably the only one that's he's going to be alone with"

And with that she had closed the door leaving most of the Charming's in a stunned kind of silence and Rumple pondering the depths in which his daughter would go to keep her temper under control.

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Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had no idea what her Dad was up to but she received a text message from Henry an hour or so after she had gone out to prowl the empty streets to tell her that her Dad had branded most of the heroes with some sort of tattoo thing that was apparently going to send them all to hell. They were meeting up in Granny's and apparently going to spend their final hours together. Even his grandmother had apparently given up hope and Giselle quite frankly thought that was terrifying to the point where she sunk to the nearest bench feeling rather week-kneed.

She wanted to go and sit with them, but she couldn't. Giselle had been a survivor for a long time and a loner to boot and as far as she could tell she didn't have a tattoo taking her to hell so she was in the clear. Which was good she supposed expect if Emma was going to hell then she might be skating on very thin ice at the moment. Very thin.

Her Dad was where she expected him to be at the docks. She couldn't see the shimmer of magic that usually protected a Dark One in fact all she could see was him standing there looking a little bit like he had done when she had first seen him so long ago, the same broken man trying to pretend that he wasn't. She remembered that feeling all too well.

"Dad" she said quietly taking a step forwards.

"Come to convince me not to do it Giselle?" he asked not turning around.

"I stood here six weeks ago and told you that Dark Ones are the things I know and that you gotta make a choice to stand by them no matter what. Stood by one father while he wrecked havoc on the world, can stand by another"

Her Dad laughed without humour.

"You just do what your comfortable with. Just like your mother. Thing is, I never wanted to be the thing that took you both away from me. And now I am. And I gave in"

"Everyone gives into it eventually. Never thought you'd be any different" Giselle said flippantly. It was ruined somewhat by her father turning around to face her with a board expression.

"No I suppose not. Have you ever thought that you're the common denominator? Your father died, your mother died, I'm dying right now and becoming something that took both of you away from me, something I spent a lifetime trying to destroy and the common thread is that your always at the centre of it. Maybe you're the cursed one. Maybe I should have let your mother take that potion to get rid of you when she wanted to. Might have kept her alive"

And that had Giselle stepping back in shock.

So much shock in fact that she didn't notice she had walked away until her knees went out back on the high street and she sank to the pavement feeling cold all over shivering violently as if she had just come down from a fever. Her mother had tried to get rid of her.

Wow.

She was still sat there shivering when she felt that familiar tug that said she was being transported via magic. She tugged her black suit jacket and belted dress a little bit more around herself as she landed on grass. Robin who for some reason was also there helped her to her feet and she saw everyone, half of the town there ready to be taken to hell. Including her father.

When Emma was being choked Giselle found she should have cared. All she could think of however was that her mother had tried to abort her and it was enough to make her head spin with so many unresolved questions that would never get the chance to be answered.

Giselle took a deep breath and scrambled to her other father's side watching. She wasn't some sort of blushing violet. She knew her father had done terrible things as the Dark One. She had helped Belle set Robin free after all, she knew the reason why her brother had been so hesitant to trust. She herself-her whole life and her whole childhood were the decisions of a man who had wanted to cause hurt and pain to someone else.

And then something she changed. She had been right she realised as her Dad dropped Emma to the ground she could see the change in him. He looked at her for a second as he passed Emma Excalibur and then he smiled. She didn't know what to say or even to move because as soon as she had caught eyes with her father he had moved them behind her and both of her father's locked eyes.

And then Emma rammed the sword into her Dad's chest.

Giselle's legs went out from under her and she sank to the ground. Her father regardless of his bad knee knelt down to wrap his arms around her but Giselle barely felt them. Emma was screaming and sobbing, and Henry had collapsed into Regina's side and Giselle couldn't help but sit there on the ground and gasp wordlessly. She had always known the Dark One-her father-would die or could die but Hook…Hook she had never thought would die and it had floored her.

In the space of one year she realised humourlessly she had seen both of her father's die and she couldn't help but wonder what the hell she might have done to see have this crash down on her.

She didn't realise that she was crying until her father reached down and pulled her back up and into his chest and he held her there with more strength than she had imagined. Giselle wondered when he had stopped walking without a limp, but she was too exhausted to notice that he had pulled her away out of sight and didn't realise that she was magically taken back to her house until she was looking up at it.

She pulled away wiping her face and then took a step back looking at him for a moment. And then in one perfect moment she understood.

"You're the Dark One again"

Her father gave a little shrug and she could tell he was pleased with what had taken place. In one fell swoop Giselle realised he had taken care of his greatest enemy, destroyed his legacy, got his daughter back and his magic even more powerful. She should be impressed but she was too tired and too upset. Yet she couldn't push him away. He was she realised with another sob the only family she had left.

Her father opened his arms and despite what she thought of him at this moment he was the only person that she could trust, the only person that she had left. It was like they had come full circle, she had, had no family, a family, and then no family again and she couldn't help but start crying with feeling because despite the way that she acted she was a seventeen year old girl who had just seen her Dad die in front of her regardless of weather or not he had wanted it.

That would be a conversation for another day of that she was sure.

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Storybrooke. The Next Day. Emma's Perspective.

They had gathered in the apartment. Gold…Giselle looking like she had slept as little as Emma had, her parents, Henry, Robin, Regina. There was only one person missing really. And Emma was going to get that one person back. As she explained her plan she could feel the rather dubious reactions that it was getting but for once Emma didn't care. She knew that there was only one person that would understand the near all desirable need to get Hook back and that one person was his daughter.

It was Giselle that Emma turned too. She clearly didn't care about the comment that the blonde woman had thrown Gold's way. She probably knew before Emma did that her father had reverted back into his old ways. Instead she sat there back straight head held high and her eyes just completely blank, her face a pale contrast against her blue jumper and black jeans with the rips. Emma had to turn her head away least the anger boil in her stomach again.

"So" Regina said leaning back against the counter and drumming her fingers against the counter. "Were going to hell…what could go wrong" she exchanged a look with her old teacher and Emma realised that both of them would have ghosts in the Underworld that neither of them wanted to deal with.

But she didn't care. Nothing mattered but getting to Hook.

And when she stood on the edge of the lake watching the boat come forwards she found that she didn't care about anything other than finding the man that she had given her heart too and reuniting him with his family.

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 **Enjoy this chapter and hopefully i will get back in to the swing of writing as soon as i am back.**

 **Next Chapter-In which Giselle ends up in hell has a reunion with one ghost and puts it to rest, learns about the God of death and begins to look for the one person who might have answers to her questions. Meanwhile Killian hallucinates his past mistakes as Hades leaves him to die.**

 **And let me know what you think. **


	48. Detoured On A Path To Hell

**Hi, so here is another chapter and another long one. I had fun writing this chapter and there are about three more chapters left of this season and a lot of that will be focused on Giselle's mental heath and her physiological issues surrounding the battle between Rumple and Hook and the Darkness and Killian's revelation in the previous chapters. A lot of Giselle's actions and her thoughts and her feelings have been dictated by what she's been told and the next chapter in particular is a chance for her to put some ghosts to rest. It will be broken down into four subheadings and then into places where the storyline takes place.**

 **I know some of you wanted action but as i have stated in this half of the story Giselle's main focus was sorting out her emotional state that i built up over five seasons so to speak and in Season 6 we get to see the really badass Giselle actions of that i can promise you.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

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Paradise Lost

Chapter 48-Detoured On A Path To Hell

In which Giselle ends up in hell, has a reunion with one ghost and puts it to rest, learns about the God of Death and begins to look for the one of many people who might have answers to the questions she never got a chance to ask. Meanwhile Killian hallucinates his past mistakes and the life he never had while trapped as Hades leaves him to die.

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 ** _"_** ** _At long last I know who I am and what I represent. A woman in my own right, a woman for the modern age, a woman who is free to live, to love and free to break away."_** **(Princess Margaret-The Crown-TV show)**

A Park Bench. Somewhere Unnameable. Giselle's Perspective.

When she woke up she thought it was peaceful. Too peaceful really. It was…calm…more to the point she was calm which was saying something really, especially considering the mood she had been in when she had fallen asleep her head against her father's knees. She had felt then like she had drank three double expresso's right after the other. It was strange to feel this calm at a time like this.

She sat up wincing as something in her back pulled in a distinctly strange place. She looked around and it was then that she saw where they were. She was at the duck pond in Storybrooke but it was too quiet for Storybrooke. This was like…another world…

"Not completely off course you know" said a heartbreaking familiar voice and she turned around to see sitting on the bench like he had been the last time she had seen him alive his hair the same shade as hers the grin still etched on his face and that look of understanding that she had once hated having confused it with pity rather than seeing it for what it was, was her brother.

Neal.

Bae.

Her brother.

Giselle Jones blinked and then decided that she was clearly losing what little of her mind was left.

Neal snorted when he saw what she imagined was not a very nice expression on his face.

"Hey sis…relax…your not mad…your not dead for that matter. I am still…but I came to see you considering your in that great chasm of half in the living world and half in the underworld. Your boat's on the cusp of the border so to speak"

Giselle pulled herself to her feat and then moved to sit down on the bench next to her brother pulling her dark purple coat around her more tightly. "Your not down there are you?" she guessed. Why on earth or not earth all things considering would Bae be here speaking to her here in a strange version of the duck pond where their last conversation when she had been so ignorant about their father and what he was truly capable of…when she had been so confused about Killian and how she could balance the two in her life-when he could be in the Underworld waiting for them was a no brainer.

"Nah" her brother said grinning. "I moved on a long time ago Giselle. Nothing you could have done would have saved me. I had no unfinished business. Unfinished conversations yes but not business. Not like some of the poor sods down there. So I moved on and…I don't know what I can tell you about it…but I know I'm happy about where I ended up"

Giselle nodded and then gave into the urge and leaned her head on his shoulders surprised and more than a little gratified to notice that not only did he wrap one arm around her but that he was solid flesh rather than some kind of ghost.

"It's all a mess" she said finally. "Typical for me isn't it? I didn't need you when you were alive…or at least I didn't think I did but now when your dead I find I need you more and more"

Bae laughed once without any humour as if he too realised the irony of the situation and like her found it painful rather than amusing. She closed her eyes and leaned into him a bit more. This was the last conversation she was ever gonna have with her big brother and now she knew about she was damn well gonna make it last a lot longer than the previous one had"

"I don't think you should go down to the Underworld" he said quietly. "No good can come of it. Hook…Killian…" he amended. "Deserves to find happiness just as I have. He's had an even longer life than me…he deserves peace. Emma…Emma thinks she can save him. I think she might be taking on her first unwinnable fight not that that will stop her" he added fondly.

"We could have saved you, you know" Giselle said quietly.

"I know"

"I don't know what to do. About Dad being dead, about Father being the Dark One again. I don't know how to go back to normal when all the time I am scared that something is gonna pull the rug out from under me. I don't know how to fall in love or relax or be myself. I don't know how to not get lost in my own thoughts and not get swept away. I don't know how to be happy again Bae and I don't know what to do"

Bae hugged her a little bit tighter.

"Hook…Dad…there always gonna be there for you know matter what you do. Have you tried talking to someone? Archie was pretty good the last couple of times I met him. No sin in asking for help now and then"

"It's weak" Giselle said sitting up and wiping her eyes.

"No it's not" Bae said in a voice so strong and resolute that she actually had to turn around to get a look at him.

"Getting help is not a sign of weakness. Going back to school and trying to rebuild your life and being happy with that wendigo boy who looks like he wants to eat you alive-oh yeah I saw that whole debacle just cause I'm dead doesn't mean I don't check in on any of you-is not a sign that your forgetting all that you've lost. Hook gets that even if our father doesn't. But…during those curse years…I bet he was happy with you and no memory of me. You were his whole world. Hell even after that it was obvious that he was gonna walk through hell himself to keep you. And you have a brain sis. You didn't do something rash and stupid and jump into bed with Arthur did you?"

"I broke up your family Bae…my very existence is proof of that, everything is just spiralling out of control. The way I feel…it's just…so dark all the time and I think…it's like it's poisoning me from the inside out and I'm just stuck on the side-lines watching as all the stories just pass me by unable to move"

"Firstly" Bae said again shaking his head. "Your not responsible for that. That marriage was doomed from the start. If it wasn't Hook she'd have ran off with someone else trust me. And…and if you got questions, I'm pretty sure she'll answer them, pretty sure she's still there. And as for Hook…" he continued as if seeing the dark thoughts swirling around Giselle's overfilled, confused head.

"That man searched for revenge, for you, for some kind of justice for over three hundred years. Not even Emma is gonna compete with that. Just tell him how you feel. Better than locking it all away inside you. You got people that are willing to help you fight even if it's just yourself. Ask them. Even the Charming's."

"I really missed you Bae" Giselle confessed as Bae straightened up and she knew instinctually that he was leaving…leaving this place…leaving this world… _leaving her_.

"I know. I missed you too sis. But you got this and you know it. Go and fight for what you want, for your family, for your freedom, you're a woman with an amazing capability to love to be loved for that matter. Go and be that woman instead of some sad ghost thinking that she has to be either the Dark One's Daughter or the Pirate's Daughter or even Scarlett Gold. Be yourself. Best advice I can give you"

"Zelena is back you know, he brought her back and…It was like it all meant nothing." she said and then kicked herself because of course he knew that. Bae shrugged. "That man we both called father has done nothing but put himself first since the moment that dagger got into his hand. The only difference is neither one of us really believed we were enough to change him. But he did love us. He does love us. Who knows in the end it might be the thing that saves him."

He stood up and Giselle stood up next to him and when he opened his arms she stepped into the hug willingly. She tried to remember how this felt, how talking to her brother, how his face looked, how it felt to be protected again, the peacefulness of the duck pond so unlike it's real counterpart and then he was gone and she had the feeling of the ground pulling out from under her and Giselle's eyes fluttered closed as she went from what felt like zero to one sixty in seconds.

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The Boat. The Underworld. Giselle's Perspective

Giselle jerked awake with such a force that the boat almost toppled over. Henry who had his head against her knee for some reason jerked awake himself and her father looked down in surprise. No doubt she thought to herself that he had probably been enjoying the scenic route to hell though all she could see was darkness. It was rather disappointing in all honesty because when you heard stories about hell and what it was like it was rather disappointing when it was compared to the actual thing.

Emma was still asleep and Snow White who had her hands in her daughters hair shot her a nasty look which told Giselle that the older woman had not forgiven her for taking Emma's cuff off and making a decision for herself which might have admittedly backfired. Giselle didn't even have it in her to be repentant. If it was Regina then she might have been but Giselle could remember in perfect clarity that night she had spent upon her knees in front of the fire wishing her father had come home when instead Snow White had had him captured and then allowed her house to be ransacked while she probably conceived Emma with her husband.

Somethings were even now difficult to forgive.

She sat up feeling her back ache again and saw what looked like craggy rocks forming between the fog. It looked a little bit like the Storybrooke docks and for a second she had to blink.

"Is that?" she asked as Emma woke with a start. Regina nodded once.

Hell.

* * *

The Underworld. Killian's Perspective.

Every bone in his body was aching and not in the good way. There was something sticking to his hair and he knew it was blood. There was clumps of it and he knew at least one rib was broken. Whoever it was that was torturing him and breaking him and doing whatever it was that was making it hurt more and more and he shivered against the cold tile of the floor he was resting on. Being stabbed Killian decided was not fun.

He winced again as he tried to turn over. He had tried yesterday to sit up and that had been a bad idea and he swallowed back bile in his throat all day and then he had dropped off into a pain filled sleep. The whole point of hell was becoming clearer as the hours ticked on by (or by this point it might be days) and everytime he closed his eyes he saw the mistakes of his past. After the first time the nightmares had woken him awake with his heart in his throat then he had tried to stay awake.

Memories of Liam dying in his arms blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth, the dreamshade in his veins stark black and his eyes wide and panicked. Milah in his arms panic turning to acceptance as she stared at him her fingers brushing his cheek as he tried to keep her alive even though it was futile. The pain in his hand as it went from being on his wrist to the floor. The panic that thrummed along every bone in his body when he saw Giselle in that monsters arms. The pain and the loneliness, the revenge that barely covered the dark swirling hole that had once been the place his daughter had resided in his very soul. Learning Giselle was alive after reconciling that she was dead. The little baby turned into the dark haired woman who had looked at him with so much hatred. Bae with Milah's eyes filled with disgust at his actions, his rejection, his death, his return and his death again. Emma her eyes dark and cold and again the swirling darkness that had kept him going for so long that he had fought out from that he had succumbed to with little fight.

After all of that it was just easier to keep awake. But sleeplessness was creeping up on him and he feared he might be hallucinating because when he opened his eyes again he saw a small child playing in the dirt next to him and he knew in the only instinctual way a father could know that this five year old was his daughter. The girl she should have been sent here to die probably because of his stupidity.

But she was so beautiful. She would have been a beautiful child even then. He would have taught her how to sail and taken her up the mast to see the stars and tucked her into bed at night. He had had so many plans that had gone the wrong way and now there was a hallucination of the life he should have had sitting in the dirt of hell watching him.

"I'm sorry" he said to the little figment of smoke that was his daughter.

"You could have saved me you know" she said quietly.

"I know" was all he said and the dark eyes stared at him hollowly.

"I'm sorry" was all he could say again and again.

"That's not gonna help" the child said, the figment of smoke and the dark dreams and nightmares that had plagued him ever since that baby had disappeared in a puff of dark smoke staring at him. He took her in again because even if this was his mind tormenting him this was still Giselle and he would never see her again.

"There coming you know" she whispered her hands still knuckles deep in the red tinged dirt and she looked at him with those eyes, the same as her brother and mother and it took Killian a second to realise what his mind was telling him. Giselle was coming for him. Emma was coming for him.

If he made it out of this alive he was going to kill them because didn't they know by now that he was not worth saving?

Giselle's child ghost came closer and leaned next to him. "And the God of Death is going to make sure they pay" she whispered and before Killian could do anything, before he could even reach out and touch her, she had disappeared into smoke and he was left to lean against the wall his whole body aching with aches and pains that he knew would never go away.

He passed out in pain thinking of blonde hair and dark eyes and how he was just not worth it.

* * *

The Underworld Cemetery. Emma's Perspective.

They were walking to the cemetery to where Hook's headstone was, and she was so not used to hearing or saying those words. She was terrified of what she was seeing or what she had not said, and she was forced to swallow again trying to sort out her dry mouth least she choke. How had walking become this hard?

Giselle was walking next to her, her hands folded into the pockets of her purple wool coat with the strangely shaped collar. Emma took a good look at her and then realised what was different. When she was shackled to the darkness and even when she was fighting it she had looked at the daughter of the man she had loved and seen the same battle raging in her. Giselle had been at least since Gold had been forced over the town line-wan, defeated and on more than one occasion so defensive that it was dangerous to be around her. She had come back and fought so hard that it had like she had been going to war with them and on more than one occasion Emma had felt like the enemy. Now she seemed calm, collected and more at peace with herself and the change was jarring to the silent teenager that had gone around confused and broken and against the world. Even when Gold had announced he was done she had rolled her eyes but said nothing. No demands that he stay but neither had their been any demands that Emma ease up on her treatment of him. The old Giselle would have flared up at the treatment of her father but this Giselle seemed to take it in her stride.

There was no doubt that she had forgiven him for his deception-Emma could understand that. She too would probably forgive her father for anything even turning to darkness in the same way her parents had forgiven her. Giselle's love for Killian and Gold was apparent because she had put her trust in Emma to stop them from killing each other. And God knows Emma knew that for Giselle it was difficult to trust…anyone.

"I'm sorry that Gold walked out on you again" she said as they walked down the steps that led to the many rows and rows of headstones. Someone was keeping Killian prisoner of that she was sure of. Emma knew enough about Regina's mother to know that there was no way Cora Mills was running scared without their being a damn good reason for it and there being a damn powerful person behind it. Emma had read enough books in both school and prison to know what the myths surrounding the Underworld were like.

"It's ok" Giselle said shrugging. "It is what it is I suppose. Let's just focus on getting Dad and getting out of here. I know your parents think they can save everyone Emma but please…a lot of people down here don't need our help"

"You don't wanna help your Mom? You don't think she'd be down here? Or…" Emma trailed off. She knew from her own time unconscious that Neal was not down here but still…

"I know Bae's not here Emma if that's what your asking. I…I don't know if I wanna open the box marked Milah either. Sometimes I think it might be easier to let the ghosts lie. It's not gonna change anything" Her voice was loaded with meaning and Emma took that to understand that Giselle did not want to help people with their unfinished business because it would delay them from what they were both here to do. Emma couldn't help but agree but she knew her parents and she knew her son and she knew deep down that it was no good. There was an evil here and there was a chance that he had Killian and therefore whoever it was that Cora was scared of needed to be destroyed.

"Your very calm" was all Emma said. "I know…well I don't but…I heard there was something with Arthur and I do have all of my memories"

"I've had…a revelation so to speak" Giselle said as they stopped. They were quite alone in the corner of the cemetery her family panning out around her in search of Hook's grave and Giselle eyed her with that same calm that right now was beginning to be a bit unnerving. "I know what I am Emma, I am a woman in my own right, not the Pirate's Daughter or the Dark One's Daughter but a woman in my own right and while I love both of my father's very much I am done taking sides in this war between the two of them. I've seen the darkness and I don't want to touch that. I just want to find my Dad go home and move on with my life and try and rebuild it. I've put so much on hold since I became Giselle Jones, first curse, second curse, Neverland, Dad, Father dying, Bae, Belle banishing Father, you becoming dark, Dad ignoring me to focus on you, Arthur…Axel…I need to focus on myself for a time. I need to focus on me. I need to just be me"

Emma blinked. "Whose Axel?"

"Oh" Giselle said and there was a smile on her face a small smile that was different to anything that she had ever seen on the girl. She looked…well…Emma knew what she looked like, she had, had that look and the feelings that followed twice. First time it had ended up with Henry being born behind bars and the second time it had ended up with them…well…here"

"That's—" But she was cut off because Henry yelled out that he had found the grave and the two women ran towards it potion clutched in Emma's hand.

When Killian appeared battered, bloody and torn Emma realised that her mother had to curve around a stunned looking Giselle to speak to her because when they had seen the man that they loved (in different ways) look so defeated Emma had not realised that they were holding hands.

* * *

The Underworld. The Diner. The Next Day. Giselle's Perspective.

She took a seat at the diner waiting patiently. Emma and Regina had gone in search of any clue to where her Dad (her broken and bleeding Dad) was being held. Her father was hold up in his shop and had said he wished not to be disturbed and for once Giselle agreed perhaps some separation was best (she was willing to bet half of the town was here because of either him or Regina) and therefore she decided after a night sat in the red tinged Apartment that was the Charming Family Home that she was going to do something before she bottled out of it and changed her mind.

She had written down the three names she had desperately wanted to close the open chapters in her life too. She couldn't think of anyone else. Well…she supposed her Dad must have relatives but she didn't want to speak to them…what could she say that would explain her life or her existence.

She dipped into the diner and thankfully that damn Blind Witch was not there. She left the note on the edge of the noticeboard that was clearly a new thing considering it was not a perfect mirror of what was happening above and then she disappeared out of the door before she could change her mind and run back and scrunch up the note that asked for the location of her mother, her first boyfriend and love Edmund and the most potent of influences that she had ever had. Her guardian and her bonified mother for a very long time. Rosanna.

Her phone chimed and she had to laugh. Even though they were underground, under the world for all intents and purposes this place really was too much like Storybrooke right down to the phone service that still kept going.

It was a text from Regina telling her to get to the underground tunnels. They had found a way into the tunnels and they found their way to where Emma suspected her Dad was being held and without a second glance to the diner Giselle ran in the direction of the tunnels finally desperate to see her beaten and bloodied father.

* * *

The Tunnels. The Underworld. Regina's Perspective.

She was not a woman to be overcome by a moments weakness but she had admittedly grown fond of Hook. She had certainly become fond of his daughter and that was something that she was unsure of because…well now was not the time nor place to have this discussion even with herself. Instead she had to focus on the hook gleaming in the darkness of the tunnel while she got a good look at the only man who had ever terrorised her mother.

Hades was stood there practically beaming as he took in the look of horror on Emma's face and the look of concern on Snow Whites. And before she could even make some threat there was the sound of running footsteps and Regina had to close her eyes in horror because she knew intimately what that was. Or rather…who that was.

Giselle was running down the tracks and she skidded to a stop some distance away when Regina held out her hand and put her finger to her lips. She took in the hook dangling from a thankfully oblivious Hades and she leaned back against the wall her eyes wide and filled with horror. Regina in a moment of sentimentality held out her hand and Giselle took it as Hades finally turned his attention to her. He took her in with the same predatory gaze that Arthur once upon a time ago had gazed at her and Regina felt her hackles raise in the same way. Giselle was seventeen she had never had a mother and Regina might not fill that role but she didn't see anyone else trying.

"What the hell did you do to him?" Giselle asked in much the same tone Emma had used. Emma for the most part seemed horrified into silence.

Hades winked and then disappeared in a white blue fire that Regina personally thought was very gaudy and a tad tacky and that left the four of them standing there in the dirt.

"We have to get him back" Giselle said her voice hollow. She stared at Emma and Emma stared back and Regina knew they were having some sort of conversation between the two of them and Regina knew that she and Snow were never gonna be able to get in on that conversation where two women who loved the same man pledged with determination that they were going to save him and come hell or high water that was what they were going to do. Regina could have laughed because both Giselle and Emma had gotten their fight back after months of languishing in darkness and god help Hades when they got to him.

They were going to get Hook back and they would leave this place and their ghosts behind them and she and Robin managed to make a compromise of the baby that he had had with her sister and Henry became the smiling happy boy he had been so long ago and perhaps even in ten years time if they were lucky to make it that long this would seem like a little detour down the path to hell that could easily be forgotten.

* * *

 **And let me know what you think and i promise you i will try and have an update sooner rather than later.**

 **Next Chapter-Giselle puts to bed three separate ghosts and meets another that has haunted her Dad (Killian) for a long time even as the man has begins to piece together missing memories and plans for the future (or lack of). Her father's actions meanwhile have a devastating consequence and Hades plan is revealed as he summons a ghost and a pawn to the Underworld whose choices create ripples. **


	49. Brothers, Mothers, Lovers

**Hi, so here is another chapter, i hope you all enjoy and the last two chapters of Season 5 will be updated as soon as they have been written. I hope you all enjoy this.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle, Rosanna and a few other OCs.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 49-Brothers, Mothers, Lovers

Giselle puts to bed three separate ghosts and meets another that has haunted her Dad (Killian) for a long time even as the man in question has begun to piece back his memories and missing moments of the events in Camelot and plans for the future (kind of). Her father's actions meanwhile have devastating consequences for one person and Hades final plan is revealed as he summons a ghost and a pawn to the Underworld whose presence and choices create ripples.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Death is the mother of beauty; Hence from her, alone, shall come fulfilment to our dreams and our desires"_** **(Wallace Stevens)**

 **Part One. Milah.**

Storybrooke. The Underworld. Giselle's Perspective.

Emma had taken to pacing up and down the floorboards. They had been getting nowhere in their search for her Dad and Giselle knew Emma's nerves were just as frayed as her own. Giselle and Emma though they didn't like to admit it were made of stuff stronger than the others because they knew what it was like to be abandoned and constantly let down by people. It might be harsh but it was true.

Plus they were the only two that understood what was at risk here. The others might feel it but they understood intimately what would happen if they failed. They-Emma and Giselle and now Emma had taken to stalking up and down the floorboards of the frighteningly familiar apartment in silence trying to figure out a way to get to her father and Giselle had taken to tapping her fingernails across the table.

Of course that was when her newly Dark One'd father if that was even a word came in the door looking like all of his problems had been solved. Giselle groaned softly. The last thing she needed to deal with was another blow up between the new Dark One and the emotionally unstable old one.

"So whose this dead soul then? Because it better be good if four of us are gonna get out of this in one piece" she said cutting off his plan because if there was one thing that Giselle knew her father was good at it was talking his way in and out of plans regardless of weather or not they would actually work.

"Four?" Emma asked.

"Yeah me, you and father are sneaking in and then the three of us plus Hook are sneaking out again remember? And before either one of you starts I am just as capable of this as either one of you probably more because I still don't have dark magic running through my veins and if you try and stop me then I promise you that I will do it myself and then—"

"Alright we get it you want to come" her father said rolling his eyes. "But…err…be prepared, David give her you gun"

"I am not giving a sixteen year old my gun" came the indignant reply.

"I turned seventeen in Camelot" Giselle felt compelled to point out.

"Well you should have said—" Snow White began but Giselle could feel Emma's temper rising and her own wasn't doing much better.

"Look can we just go please before Hades finds out what's going on and I don't know…tries to stop us. Whose this ghost you've got and why do you look like you've done something very bad?" she said looking her father and his somewhat nervous expression in the eye (and that was not good, instinct generally told her that). She had spent her birthday in her room trying to figure out whether or not she had wanted Axel or Arthur and it was not something she was eager to remember.

"It's…well…it's your mother"

And the world as Giselle knew it came to a screeching halt.

Well she thought to herself bitterly. She had always said she wanted to meet her and with her father's somewhat confusing last words in her ears the need to try and piece together whatever mysteries that had been concealed in her past. It seemed now was the time that she was due some answers.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Underworld Tunnels. Gold's Perspective.

He had to grit his teeth a little as Milah stumbled into him again. Direction had not always been his dear wife's best quality and from the second she had clapped eyes upon Giselle she had been stumbling around all of the place.

Giselle for the most part was shooting her strange looks that Rumple did not like because he couldn't read them. Giselle had always been a rather easy child to read because she had been unable to keep her emotions away from him. She had grown however in the time he had been in a comma from a girl who was lonely and angry at the world to a woman who was calm and collected and in a way poised to take on the world.

Something had happened of that he knew. There must have been a change, some shift in her values because he knew Giselle only too well.

The meeting between his ex-wife and his son's lover turned Hook's lover had gone just as well as Gold had hoped. Once Milah had clapped eyes on her daughter she had been stunned into silence and whatever witty remark that could have been made about how she had never shut up whenever he had been married to her had gone out the window.

Milah had made one abortive move to touch her daughter but Giselle had raised an eyebrow that even with her hungry, intense expression made it clear she did not want to be touched. Even as they were walking though mother and daughter were shooting each other looks that meant that they wanted to sit down and talk to each other as soon as they rescued the rum-soaked toy boy and Gold did not want that because he had only really let his whole guard down with one woman and it was the one who hated him standing here and if he lost Giselle after everything he had been through and after everything else then he found it would be more than he could bear. Plus the anger that had never really abated with his ex-wife was growing more and more dangerous at each passing second.

Therefore he opted to stay in the boat and Milah did too. Giselle turned to her mother as she and Emma made to race up the steps to the chamber where he was willing to bet that Hook was being held. "Stay here, I want to talk to you when I get back, I have a lot of questions I want answers too" and with that they were gone and he and the woman he had equally loved and despised were alone again.

"She's beautiful" Milah said finally in a wishful tone. "I…I knew you were going to take her but…she's so strong and beautiful and Rumple…I…I thought you'd kill her on the spot not turn her into this woman who knows her own mind so well and…" she looked like she was going to cry and Rumple who knew intimately that Milah was not a woman who cried easily decided to speak.

"It was hard not to" he said finally. "But she looked like Bae, as a child you know, as a baby, a happy baby. Hard to kill that, even for me"

"She must have every boy in town after her"

"Not that I know about" he said though he knew enough from inheriting the magic of the Dark Ones and the memories of them all -including Emma, as well as what Giselle had told him, to know that he was going to have a long and painful talk with Arthur whenever he got back to town.

"Do you think she'll forgive me?"

"What did you do?"

"A lot…more than a lot. Do you think she'll let me move on?"

Now that was a surprise.

"Giselle is your unfinished business?"

"My children are, Giselle and…and Bae. Do you think he'll forgive me? Do you think he'll ever understand why I did what I did, I know he's not here but…I hope that he does, whenever I get to see him again"

"He did me" he said truthfully. "And Giselle did. I see know reason why her forgiveness shouldn't stretch to you. Her character and her personality is something I could never dampen you know. I tried with your lover. I tried so hard to destroy him and she still ran after him."

Milah smiled and then before he could talk with his ex about the son that despite everything they had both equally loved and destroyed there was a rush of bright neon blue flame (and really wasn't that pretentious?) and Hades was there with a way out.

And suddenly Rumple knew what he had to do.

And it was as easy as it was all those years ago.

The scream was particularly satisfying.

* * *

The Apartment. Storybrooke. The Underworld. Killian's Perspective.

Milah had been there. Milah. Had been in the Underworld, had been ten feat away from him and he could have held her and apologised to her and…

And what? He wasn't going to go back with her he knew that much. Emma was his life now. But Milah was the mother of his child. Giselle's mother and he owed her…no he wanted to look upon Giselle, their child the two of them as co-parents, as co-creators of an incredible girl who he had seen hanging over the green water looking at him with those dark eyes.

And she was gone. Hades had thrown her into the lake of Lost Souls and the woman that he had loved for the longest time, that he had, had a daughter was now in the green waters below suffering eternal torment.

"Milah was here?" he asked again and he had Emma on one side and Giselle on the other and when Gold nodded looking just as surprised as he did (and was so battered and bruised that he could not tell weather or not the crocodile was taking him for an idiot or not) and he hated the fact that his voice came out all small. Giselle closed her eyes next to him and leaned her head against his shoulders as if the fight had for a second gone out of her. Giselle took a deep breathe turning her face so that her hair (know down to the tops of her shoulders) and pressed her face into the leather of his jacket.

"Yeah she came to help you" Emma said softly on his other arm but Killian couldn't look past her, his eyes were too blurred.

That had been in the tunnels. Now he was in the apartment and Giselle was on one side of him her head leaning against his shoulder and even though it hurt it was one of the best pains he had ever had because Giselle was here and Killian did have some memories of Camelot and though he did not know how they had transcribed into Storybrooke he was willing to bet that Arthur had not stopped in his interest in his daughter.

He had failed again it seemed. Hades had scrawled Emma's, Snow's and Regina's names onto gravestones and he could only stare at them. Even as he acknowledged that Emma's name was etched on the stone he had to let a tiny amount of his muscles unwind at the fact that his daughters name was thankfully kept of the stone. At least that was a small something even though he suspected she wouldn't go until he was going back to the real Storybrooke.

She wasn't leaving him even if he did have truce with her father even if it was a thin one. She was still stood here with him and after all that she had been through that was worth it's weight in gold.

Giselle had still not let go of his arm. Even when his arm still throbbed he closed his eyes and imagined that the conversation that he had to have with his daughter would hurt more.

* * *

 **Part Two-Liam**

Emma's House. The Underworld. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had gone upstairs to have a shower and when she had come out slightly amused that the water pressure at Emma's was still the same here as it was in the above world she saw a man that she had never seen before standing at the door, Emma watching with a very strange expression on her face and her Dad looking like he had been hit with something very heavy if the surprise that was etched into his thankfully free of blood and whole face was anything to go by.

"Who is this?" she asked coming down the stairs. She wished for a clean set of clothes but she might have well as wished for a one way ticket back to the real world and used the washing machine there. At least she was somewhat clean even if Emma used a terrible brand of soap and the shampoo wasn't much better. If Henry had been serious about buying a house someone would have to speak to her and tell her that now she had money and she could spend it on what she wanted.

"Giselle" her Dad breathed in some way that told her instantly that this was one of those moments where like her he had not forgotten that the woman he had loved and her mother was swimming around in the lake of eternal torment.

"I would like you to meet my brother. Liam, your Uncle Liam"

Fuck me she thought grinning, the older man—no her Uncle seemed to be having the same thoughts because he grinned and instead of taking her held out hand he came forwards and hugged her all but picking her up. Her Dad's grin only intensified, he looked years younger and Giselle felt herself relax around perhaps the only other member of her biological family left.

"An Uncle well look at that…always knew you had it in you Killian. And she's stunning too. God knows where she got that from but she is. Now, shall we get onto defeating the God of Hell so I can finally finish the business keeping me here"

And with that her Dad laughed.

"Oh…" her…Uncle said as he turned around. "There was a woman looking for you the other day. Says she saw your message in the diner. I think she is going to be there all day. Her name is…oh what was her name…Rosanna? I think"

Giselle's breath caught in her throat.

"Dad" she began but her Dad was already holding one hand up as if to say go.

"Go" was all he said with a smile that told her he understood and maybe much more but Giselle was already out of the door and running as fast as her high heeled brown boots could carry her.

* * *

 **Part Three-Rosanna**

Granny's Diner. Storybrooke. The Underworld. Giselle's Perspective.

She would like to think that she hadn't ran out of the house and back to the diner so fast that she might have stumbled a couple of times and there was dust on her jeans adding to the grime that was already there due to the damp tunnels of the Underworld. There was a pause where she stood there at the door and noted the Blind Witch's head had come up like a dog with a bone and she sniffed the air which was just gross. Giselle scowled at her and then she saw her.

Rosanna.

She was sat at one of the booths and she was so strikingly similar that Giselle stopped. Her blonde hair was pulled upwards into a topknot and she was wearing a white jumper with lace on the sleeves and dark jeans. She looked younger than she had done when she was raising Giselle and despite her feelings towards her mother she couldn't help but grin when she saw the woman who had raised her who she had never got a chance to say goodbye to.

Rosanna looked up and then grinned stood up and the two of them hugged Giselle burying her face in Rosanna's neck and trying to remember that this was the feeling of home, of safety and security, her first feelings of such.

"Sit down Giselle" Rosanna said, and Giselle took a look then at what was in front of her on the table. It was a dinner of porridge, bread with butter and cheese and bacon, all of the things that she had grown up with and Giselle sat down at the request and she swallowed.

"So tell me about Hook"

Giselle blinked and Rosanna laughed swirling her own tea around.

"I hear everything here sweetheart, trust me in this place there's nothing much to do but listen to what you can hear above and the place has been buzzing with the information that Hook is down here and you and the Saviour and the Evil Queen followed him. So tell me, what happened for you to leave him alive? To go back to him? What happened after I died?"

Giselle took a deep breath and took a gulp of tea. "It's a long story" she said smiling.

"Well" Rosanna said sardonically "I have nothing better to do down here sweetheart trust me"

And so Giselle told her everything, Hook, her Dad, Milah, Axel, Arthur, Belle, her brother and everything in between. Rosanna didn't say anything-she had never been a woman to speak her opinion before the full facts were out and Giselle said everything she was thinking and feeling to the only person that she could trust.

"Wow" Rosanna said when Giselle had finally finished and tucked into the still warm porridge with gusto. She was hungry and the porridge was porridge and she had been hungry before-she would never turn down food.

"Do you want my advice on this as your old governess?"

"No" Giselle said shortly. "I want you advice as the only mother that I've had and certainly one of the few women I trust"

Rosanna smiled and leaned back against the chair. She did not comment on what Giselle had said but Giselle supposed fifteen years of raising someone had given her a clear indication of how Giselle had felt about her and vice versa.

"Well firstly chuck Arthur if you haven't done it already, as for Belle then…Look live and let live in my opinion don't hate the woman because of me, I died she didn't know that. Cannot blame her for that. And as for you father…" she grimaced a little "Well the Dark One is gonna do what the Dark One is gonna do. My advice-choice yourself, choice to focus on you, go back to school, I didn't teach you how to read and how to write for you to blow it all away because you think that everyone needs you on whatever adventure it is." Rosanna drummed her nails on the table as the door opened.

"And as for Hook. I imagine this father thing is confusing for him. He went from having a baby to a teenager who hated him and then loved him and then hated him again and then he was in love with another woman who was not the child's mother and…look I admit I thought he was a murderer for a long time but that was because your father created a story that was strong and I…well…he terrified me, he saved me from my abusive husband when I asked and the favour he wanted was no trouble for me but he still terrified me. If Hook doesn't do that then I think you'll have a great father. But…Giselle you might want to start reconciling yourself to the fact that he might not make it out of here"

"He will" Giselle said seriously. "You don't know Emma Swan"

Rosanna snorted over her teacup and she took a deep breath shaking her blonde head.

"So what are you going to do" Giselle asked finally.

"Oh I'm going to clear out my apartment and then go to a better place" Rosanna said grinning. "You were my unfinished business and now I think I can go. Your good Giselle, you don't see it but you are, you're a young woman who knows her own mind and what she wants and you don't need me…you don't need your old governess hanging around you need to build your family and from what you've told me your family is Hook, Emma and Henry"

"Giselle" said a voice and she turned to see Emma coming her blonde hair flying and her face filled with dread. Giselle sighed and checked her phone. She had been there for nearly three hours and now clearly there was some kind of major crisis and judging by the absence of her father Giselle was willing to bet it involved Killian and her new found Uncle Liam.

"We have a problem"

* * *

The Tunnels, The Underworld. Kilian's Perspective.

Liam was about to leave him. It didn't hurt as much the first time perhaps because he had learnt how to live without Liam, perhaps because he knew intimately what it was like and he had only had his bother back for hours at the most. And Killian had to remind himself that Liam was going to a better place and that had to mean something.

But Liam was about to leave him and it still hurt somewhat.

There was the pounding of footsteps and he turned to see Giselle coming down the corridor with another woman with blonde hair who Killian had never seen before. Liam however was looking gleeful at seeing her.

"Emma is upstairs trying to get a signal so she can call in reinforcements and so help if you get on that boat I will personally get in it with you and kick your arse" Giselle said breathing heavily. "Oh and this is Rosanna"

Killian blinked at the blonde woman. It felt to raw to have a conversation with the woman who had raised his daughter when her mother was still in so much pain lost to him in the green lake. Rosanna raised an eyebrow at him and Killian knew there was not gonna be much love lost between either one of them.

"Anna" Liam called out. "Boat's leaving if you wanna join"

What the fuck?

"Finally Rambo, I thought you were never gonna ask me" Rosanna said grinning.

Giselle stared open mouthed and Killian blinked not able to blame her. Rosanna and Liam?

"Oh don't look like that, it's been a long time in this place" Rosanna snapped, she turned and enveloped Giselle in a long hug. Giselle hugged her back so much so Killian thought they might be intertwined and he had to look away at the emotion that was enveloped in that hug. Giselle pulled back and the two of them smiled at each other and Rosanna whispered something in Giselle's ear as she finally let go.

She moved past Killian giving him a long once over and then she leaned in next to him so that only he could overhear her.

"She wants to love you, she does, and if you hurt her again I will come back from wherever it is that I am going and I will personally kick your ass"

There was something about her that made Killian instantly believe her.

Liam helped her onboard and he wrapped one arm around Giselle as the two ghosts of their past. The two people that they had loved for so long they were letting go into something better.

They stayed there for a long time.

"You want to go and grab a drink" he said softly.

"No" Giselle said finally. "I got one more ghost to cross of the list and then I'm done. I'll meet you back at the apartment"

* * *

 **Part Four. Edmund.**

Storybrooke. The Underworld. The Cemetery. Giselle's Perspective.

It took her a while to understand how the graveyard system worked. Actually in reality all it took was a text message to Regina asking her how it worked for her to figure it out and then she walked for a long time ring in hand across the headstones until she found the one she was desperate to see.

 _Edmund Forrester_

It was a simple name, a simple headstone and it had fallen over meaning that he had gone to a better place. Edmund was free and the last ghost on Giselle's list had gone much like her brother and her uncle and the closest thing she had to a mother far away to a better place where the plague or the Dark One's Daughter couldn't get to him.

He had been the first boy Giselle had loved, for a long time he was the only boy that she had loved and while she had loved him and would have been happy to be his wife there was always calculation in her kiss because if anyone ever found out who she was there would have been hell to pay and she could have remained buried in the village pretending that nothing happened and she was who she wasn't.

In hindsight the plague and Regina's curse had been a blessing for both of them.

But still she had loved him, his blonde curls that she could run her fingers with around her fingers that one time and the way his arm had curled around her waist and the way he had taken her dancing and given him his ring that she still wore on the necklace around her neck. She took it off chain and all and held it in her hands as she sat in front of the grave that had tipped over telling her that the man that she had loved even if it was a childish kind of love was gone to an better place and that she had never been his unfinished business.

The ring was still small and gold and she held in her hand for a second thinking of the life she could have had, the children that by now even at seventeen she would have had and the chances she had lost and weather or not she wanted them again. She did she knew she wanted to be a mother and a wife and someone's partner throughout all of this crazy shit that a was living in Storybrooke.

She held the ring for a second longer and then kissed it before using her hands to sift through the dirt at the bottom of the gravestone so she could bury it. She covered the dirt over the ring and patted it back up and then she sat back on her heels looking at the tipped over grey stone.

"Goodbye Ed" she said softly pressing a kiss with her hand to the stone and then she stood up and looked out over the sepia toned sky and finally began the long journey of going back home or what vaguely resembled it, the last of her ghosts finally laid to rest.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-Killian gives Giselle some answers to her question including a flashback. Belle's appearance makes for some life changing news and Killian is forced to make a decision that will break his love and his daughter's heart so that they can live free of the darkness. (Most of the chapter will be in Killian's point of view)**

 **And there it is i hope you all enjoyed this. Next chapter should be up soon. **


	50. Back In Black

**Hi, so here is another chapter and the penultimate one to season five. I have skipped over a lot of the emotional scenes because the Firebird episode was quite frankly one of the more stunning ones of the whole of OUAT and i could not do the dialogue justice.**

 **I know the spelling and the grammar might be bad however as i have said in this chapter and more previously spelling and grammar is something that i do struggle with so please bear with me.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter.**

 **Again this does skip a few episodes and a few scenes so please keep that in mind.**

 **Please read and review and let me know what you think.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 50-Back In Black

Killian gives Giselle the answers to the questions that she so desperately needs answers too and that may include a flashback to the moment Killian decided he wanted to be a father. Belle's appearance makes for some life changing news, Zelena is also back and Killian is forced to make a decision that will break the love of this life and his daughter's heart so that they can live free from the darkness. (Most of the chapter is in Killian's point of view)

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _We're burning out, we're burning down. We're the ashes on the ground. We're burning out, we're burning down. We've fallen underground"_** **(Song-Circles, based on 'Experience' by Ludovico Einaudi)**

The Underworld. Storybrooke. The Apartment. Killian's Perspective.

Belle was sat at the table and after one cup of sweet tea she was somewhat calmer. She had shown up clutching baby Hood to her chest and then before Killian could so much as get up off the chair he was sat in Regina, Robin and the rest of them had been out desperately trying to find Zelena and understand how she was apparently the only weak spot Hades had. But Belle had shown up and then Robin had took his daughter and left to keep her safe—and wasn't that an idea that Killian should consider—and now Belle was bemoaning the fact that nobody had told her, her husband was now the Dark One.

Killian had not been paying attention. He had been gazing at Giselle out of the corner of his eye. He watched her with hard, hungry eyes as she fiddled with her mug of cocoa. There was something about her that did not sit right with him. She seemed calmer than the last time they had seen each other but there was a pause when he looked at her and he could see that something was bothering her. He hoped like hell it wasn't anything to do with Arthur. He could remember now what had happened in Camelot, what had happened in Storybrooke. He had known there was a good reason why his daughter had all but moved into Regina's place and if he had been anything of a good father he would have asked why but he was battling the darkness and even at the time having been unaware of what was happening he could feel that old pull of the dark black magic pulling at him. He had been worried stupid about Emma constantly and then to cap matters of there had been the whole trying to kill the bloody crocodile thing when he had, had no magic and there was a pause where he thought about weather or not he really wanted to bring that up when his daughter looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here.

And then there was the ever looming ghost of Milah that never went away. Giselle had never said anything at least in his hearing but he knew that there was something on her mind and considering the fact that she was going to get Giselle back to her own world (despite what it would cost him) he wanted to know what was bothering her.

And then Belle dropped the bombshell.

"I'm pregnant"

Killian started in surprise. Emma and Snow immediately gave their congratulations but his attentions were driven by Giselle who instead of saying anything simply put down her mug and regarded Belle with a cool interest.

"Well" she said in a tone that dripped so sweet it made his teeth hurt just standing next to her.

"I suppose Will must be thrilled"

Belle turned to Giselle her eyes wide as if she was surprised that Giselle had even made that an issue. Killian closed his eyes briefly and prepared for the row to hit.

"It's Rumple's" Belle said finally. "It happened the night that…the night that, the night he apparently became the Dark One again" she finished lamely and Killian knew that she really wanted to say the night that Killian had died.

Giselle raised one perfectly pointed brown and took a sip of her cocoa. There was a pause where he stood there waiting again for the row to hit but Giselle simply put down her mug smirking to herself as if she found something funny.

"Well done, it seems you hit the raffle at last Belle. You worm your way back and find a way you can never get rid of him or him you. I'd laugh if I didn't think it and you were so damn tragic." She stood up smoothing down her jeans and then reaching for her coat.

"I'm gonna go…somewhere." She nodded to herself and then moved towards the door. "Yeah that's what I'm gonna do" she muttered to herself and then she closed the door behind her and Killian shooting a look to Emma who nodded as if she understood only too well difficult teenagers and then he was out the door down the steps and into the cold night air before Giselle could even turn around.

"Sweetheart slow down for a second. I want to talk to you"

"She finds the underbelly every time" Giselle mused slowing down her trot to a walk so Killian could keep up. "I mean seriously one night and she get's pregnant? That's only supposed to happen when you're a teenager sneaking around behind your parents back"

She kicked the edge of the pavement her boots clacking against the stone.

"Is something bothering you?" he asked finally. "Is it about Rosanna?"

Giselle stopped on the edge of the pavement. "Not really" she said. "Rosanna is the one person I never had to worry about…and Edmund—you remember when I told you about that his grave is over so I know he moved on and I'm glad she got her happy ending it's…she was never the problem. Mom—Milah, her, do you remember what you told me when you were the Dark One?"

In truth he didn't not really but she looked so terribly conflicted that Killian felt like he had no other choice but to shrug and hope she filled in the blanks so that he could ease some of the tension that was etched into her.

"You told me she tried to abort me. Did she? Dad please. I need to know"

Oh shit.

And then without warning, as if he was seeing it clear as day Killian was back on his ship newly in love with Milah who had just told him the news that he had never thought he would ever here.

* * *

The Jolly Roger. The Enchanted Forest. Before the First Curse. Killian's Perspective.

He had been looking for Milah. The storm that had finally died down the previous night and he knew that she had suffered some terrible kind of sickness because of it. There was a pause before he knocked, and he was pleased to see that she was not puking up her stomach like she had done in the previous weeks when the sea's had been rough. Perhaps that was a sign that she was finally getting used to the sea, to being away from her son, of being with him.

That had to be a good thing…right?

Milah was sat on the bed looking out to sea with a rather contemplative look on her face.

"How long to the nearest port?" she asked when Killian entered their shared cabin.

"Two days at most" he said finally wondering why she sounded so cold. Milah nodded.

"I'm pregnant" she said after a long pause. "I know the signs Killian. I've had them before. I am pregnant with your baby and as soon as we get to port I am going to get rid of it"

"Wow" Killian said. It was all he could say. A baby. His baby. Wait—abort?

"What do you mean abort?" he said quietly as his brain struggled to catch up with what she had just said. Milah looked at him and her face was utterly devoid of any kind of emotion. He had never seen her look like that before.

"Killian this is no place for a baby and more importantly I don't want another baby. Bae…" she trailed off shaking her head. "I don't want another baby. I'm sorry"

Killian closed his eyes. He knew Milah had a point. They were pirates and the ship which could go into battle at any moment was not a safe place for a baby. And Gods knew with his father he was not father material himself but…a baby. A little girl or boy who looked like him and Milah who he could teach how to sail and how to fight and who he could tuck in at night. He found that he wanted that. He had never wanted children before but he found that he so desperately wanted this baby that he couldn't let Milah abort it.

"I do" he said finally. "Please Milah I do want this baby, if you want to leave after you've had it I wont stop you but if you love me then please don't abort this baby. This could be our chance"

Milah looked at him and there was genuine curiosity on her face.

"You believe that? That we can raise a child and it wont go tits up like the last time I tried to raise a child? You believe you can be a good father?"

"Yes" Killian said desperately. "Let's just…let's just think about it ok? Just until we get to port, we can make a decision then"

"You want this?" Milah asked her tone borderline incredulous as if the idea of Killian being a father was something that she had never considered and Killian had to hide his hurt a little at the thought that she had so little faith in him even when he had professed what he knew to be his whole heart to her previously.

"Yes" he said surprised a little by the depth of his feeling.

"I want this"

Milah paused looking at him and then she nodded. "Alright" she said finally. "I suppose we could wait and see what happens. But don't get baby fever. Two babies in one lifetime is more than enough"

Killian beamed at her. He was going to be a father.

* * *

The Underworld. Storybrooke. The Sidewalk. Killian's Perspective.

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that he had not lied to her. His relationship with Giselle had always been born on honesty. Snow White and he had something in common when it came to Emma and Giselle. They had never really lied to their children and Killian was not about to start now.

But there was something about her that made him pause. He had understood Milah's point of view a long time ago and he knew that he had been the main person pushing for their daughter's birth but Milah was dead. She was deader than dead and he swallowed. There was no point in ruining his daughter's memories when it came to her mother now Milah could not defend herself. Better to make himself a villain in this case than sully the dead woman he had loved for so long more than her first husband had done so.

"No she didn't want to abort you" he said forcing the words out of his throat and watching as Giselle took a deep breath relief crashing over her face. "I just wanted to hurt you and for that I am so sorry darling it's, the darkness it's a damn powerful thing."

Giselle nodded a smile back on her face and Killian decided looking at her light hearted face that he didn't care about the cost of this small lie if his daughter kept looking at him like that.

"Giselle" he said finally as they carried on walking. "I want to apologise. I did ignore you in Camelot and in Storybrooke and I don't know the full details of what happened with Arthur but I would have never have allowed him to touch you or frighten you"

"He didn't. He…he asked me if I would have an affair with him and then he kissed me and Dad…I know it shouldn't have but it made me feel—special, pretty I dunno. I didn't want to sleep with him but a lot of boys are terrified of you and father and they don't come near me—" she trailed off looking desperate.

Killian's first thought (other than rage) was good. He was glad that the men or boys did not approach his daughter. Perhaps there was hope she'd remain single for a lot longer.

Was he a bad father for wishing that?

"Anyway I accept your apology"

"Good" he said reaching into his pocket.

"I wanted to give you this. This was your grandmother's, my mothers. Alice her name was. This was her ring and when she died she gave it to your Uncle who gave it to me and now I'm giving it to you."

Giselle took the gold ring on the chain. The chain was his own and the ring was a single yellow coloured diamond or sapphire and around it were a circle of diamonds small around the gold band so it looked a little bit like the sun. Giselle stared at if for a second and then she was suddenly choked with emotion because this probably was the first family heirloom she had ever had.

"Happy birthday darling. I'm sorry I forgot. I promise if I ever get out of here it's never gonna happen again. I'm gonna make sure of it. I spent too long finding you and avenging you and hoping you'd accept me to let it all go to shit now"

Giselle smiled putting the chain on her neck and tucking the ring inside her coat. They carried on walking for a little bit more and Killian decided that if they were sharing things there was one thing he really did want to know.

"Whose the wendigo?" he asked finally.

Giselle looked at him.

"You know about that?"

"Yeah Giselle I remember Camelot, I also know that you are wearing a ring. You didn't get a marriage proposal from him did you?"

Giselle laughed and shook her head reminding herself probably that if this was Axel's ring on her middle finger then she was damn well going to ask him why she had it and what had she forgotten (or so Killian hoped. It seemed his memories had been working perfectly in Storybrooke after all he thought remembering the conversation that he had been told had happened between his daughter and the skulking boy when Arthur was still king of the hour and Emma the great threat.

"Oh, well that's Axel but I doubt he's even noticed me like that"

Killian took a look at her sideways. She was walking down the sidewalk and her slim legs were tapping against the sidewalk, her dark hair was tumbling around her pretty face with her dark eyes and her smile that lit up the room and her slim body that swirled around her almost. He might be biased but Giselle was a stunning woman, a stunning seventeen year old."

"Oh he's noticed you my daughter" he said cynically. "Trust me he's noticed you"

And they carried on walking for a long time just chatting about nothing.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Underworld. A Week Later. Killian's Perspective.

God this was tiring. He had been dead too long it seemed, he hoped that Emma was serious about trusting Hades because otherwise time was running out.

Snow White had gone back to her baby, David giving up her spot on the gravestones and he had helped because what was he supposed to do? They were there because of him and if he could get at least one member of Emma's family back to the outside world then it was a small price to pay. Of course, Hades had put all their names on the stone, of course he was now in a relationship with Zelena and of course they were now trusting both of them because as Giselle said under her breath when Emma explained her plan. _"That was just what we do"._ As far he knew the crocodile and Belle were alright. He had heard nothing from them in the past couple of days excluding the kidnapping of Zelena and all he got from his daughter was an eye roll and an assurance that if there was a portal to be produced then her father was not going to be far behind.

And now he was standing in the middle of the clock tower in silence considering his own mortality. He was not going to go back to Storybrooke. He was dead up there as he was dead down here and he'd known something like this was going to happen. He had as strange as it seems. He had known deep down that Emma was playing with fire not that it was her fault. He had spent three hundred years desperate for revenge and had it been Emma in his place he would have probably done the same thing.

But now he had to go and let Emma and Henry and Giselle move on with their lives no matter how much it hurt. And by God did it hurt.

He tugged at Giselle's hand a little while Emma and Hades and Regina were discussing the magic that it would take to break down Hades own door and gestured with his head that they needed to go outside for a second. Once there he closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath and prepared himself to say the hardest goodbye that he had ever had to face. He had said it once before and he didn't think that he could say it again.

"I love you" he said finally. "And…and when you find a man, a good man for you Giselle you are gonna know that he's the one the same way I did. And until then you don't do things like sleep with Arthur because you are worth so much more than that. You are worth the good man in the castle and so much more. I love you Giselle and don't you ever forget that" and then he hugged her pressing his face into her dark hair and Giselle hugged him back just as tight. She didn't say anything, perhaps she couldn't. Perhaps she didn't want to admit what he was saying.

Finally she uttered the three words that would always soothe any ache that Killian ever had and he tried to commit them to memory as he heard them for what he supposed would be the last time.

"I love you Dad"

Killian nodded. "Gizzy" he said using the nickname that had used when he had held her in his arms for the first time. Giselle looked at him and Killian managed a small smile. "Go through the portal and don't look back ok? Promise me, just get out of this wretched place."

Giselle looked at him for a second and then nodded. She knew that something was afoot and she was about to call him out on it and Killian knew that if she asked him point blank there was no way that he could refuse and once Giselle knew then the entire clan as she would put it would hit the roof and try and convince him out of it. This tree thing Hades was proposing was the last stand and Killian refused to get his hopes up because even desperate for life that he was he was not that trusting. Time and heartbreak had taken care of that.

Emma ruined the moment then because she poked her head out of the door smiled and said "Let's go Killian"

Let's go indeed. He took a moment at the door to stare at Giselle in the sunset. She looked so very like her mother he mused. Stunning in every way and the best thing he had ever done with his life.

And then he followed the other woman who loved him resolutely determined to break her heart so that one day she might be able to live with him as nothing but a distant memory.

* * *

Outside the Clock Tower. Storybrooke. The Underworld. Giselle's Perspective.

She had stayed outside. When Hades had cast his spell she had hid and then she had stayed outside. It was like her feet were glued to the floor because Hades casting that spell ensured only one thing. And that one thing was unbearable.

So she stayed.

And then Emma came out of the door something _terrible_ etched onto her face and Giselle had just known.

Her knees buckled and she was vaguely aware of David on one side and Regina on the other and she forced herself to look at Emma who had tears streaming down her face. They stared at each other and then Emma moved to cup her face in her hands and brown meet blue as the two women who had lived and loved Killian Jones accepted and understood in that one minute their mutual heartbreak in a way that nothing and nobody else could.

"We need to go" Emma said. "He wants you out Giselle and I promised him, we need to go"

Giselle had half a mind to refuse her but then she remembered what she had promised him—her Dad, her dead dad now and then Emma was holding her hand and they were running. Henry, Robin, Regina, David and she and Emma holding hands as David shoved the two of them through the portal. She took one last look and it was almost like she could see the past in front of her. Her Dad, her family, her mother and her governess turned mother, her Uncle, her once upon a time lover. All of them were buried In this place one way or another.

David tugged on her hand and then she was through and falling onto the stone ground of Storybrooke Emma a second behind her.

She was already up and running though. Giselle didn't know where she wanted to be but she wanted to be far away from the people she had just spent three weeks with. She wanted the right to cry in private.

Giselle had been running for a while her breathing uneven and then she ran into something hard and solid and she fell on the floor unable to keep the tears back. She was screaming and sobbing into the dirt when she felt someone's hands come out and touch her back and she fell backwards scrambling away before she realised that it was Axel looking at her. He was half wendigo-ed out if that was a word and he was looking at her with concern. He was in a pair of sweats and a jumper and he looked like he had been running and Giselle took one look at him and threw herself into his arms.

Axel to his credit didn't say anything just started running and before she knew it still sobbing she was back at the library apartment that had once been Belle's and thankfully free of everything that was hers.

Axel left her on the bed for a second and then she felt the stench of a glass of something strong probably whiskey under her nose. She didn't want to touch it she just lay there and shivered and sobbed through her adrenaline rush and her grief.

There was a pause as Axel stood there and then he curled onto the bed around her so that he was leaning against the end of the bed while she was curled up on the other end her boots still on, her heart still broken.

Giselle fell asleep like that, Axel she supposed fell asleep as well.

She did not hear about Robin until the day after.

* * *

 **And there it is please let me know what you think and i will try and publish the final chapter of season five soon.**

 **Next Chapter-The final of Season Five-Killian makes a return, Giselle is emotionally exhausted, she and Axel make a decision, a new villain is introduced and things are set in motion for the final arc of this story. **


	51. How To Save A Life

**And here is another chapter and the last of Season 5! Also this might be the longest chapter so far as i had a lot to write for it but i hope there is something in there to please anyone. Please note that any references are my own and some of the words are taken directly from the episode.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Also this might seem strange but this story is Captain Swan that is the main paring, if you do not like Captain Swan for whatever reasons then you probably picked the wrong story. I know this might seem strange coming at Chapter 51 but...**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **This is the last chapter of season five and the next chapter will be the start of Season six in which there is about ten chapters and then this story comes to a conclusion.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 51-How To Save A Life

The final chapter of Season Five-Killian makes a return, Giselle is emotionally exhausted and she and Axel make a decision, a new villain is introduced and things are set in motion for the final arc/season of this story.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you or night. Had I known how to save a life"_** **(How to Save a Life-Song-The Fray)**

Storybrooke. The Day of Robin's Funeral. Axel's Perspective.

It was a terrible thing to even think but Axel was board stiff.

If his mother could have heard his thoughts right now she would have wacked him on the back of his head and told him to show some respect. However, his mother was not here, his father was not here and neither his little brother or his older brother were here. His family was gone hunted down like frightened rabbits by Arthur fucking Pendragon King of fucking Camelot and Axel had to grit his teeth and remind himself that the man was dead and had gotten his just rewards even if Axel had not had the pleasure of snapping his neck with his hands or ripping out his throat with his teeth or claws.

But he was at the funeral of a man who he had never known, a man who had never known him (other than the fact his kid was still calling him Wolverine—whatever that was) and he was utterly board stiff.

To be honest he wouldn't have even come to this thing if Elle hadn't made him. Well it was more like Axel wasn't sure if she was ready to go out in public after her father had died and then re-died. Or whatever it was that they were calling it. If you wanted Axel's opinion nothing good came from messing with the dead and that was why he was glad that Wendigo's did not go to the Underworld and instead went to their own private place of remembrance until Judgement Day.

But Giselle had asked him to come with her and considering it was one of the few things that she had said in the past week Axel supposed it was worth getting dressed for. She was wearing a rather nice black skirt that frilled around the edges and a black polo neck shirt and her hair was tucked into a messy bun at the back of her neck. She looked tired but she was no longer the drawn out ghost that she had been in those first few days when she had barely gotten out of his bed.

Axel had not known what to do then. Women were not something he was adapt at really. She had curled up in his bed shaking and shivering for the first day and then when she had heard about Robin she sat up and told him everything that had happened in the Underworld.

"It's ok" she told him finally standing up. "I can go now"

But in all honestly Axel had not wanted her to go and he had told her as much. This woman had saved his life on a whim and he had watched her from a distance and more to the irritating point he had found himself half in love with her. Giselle was beautiful, kind, witty, the right kind of bitchy when she had to be and above all loyal.

"If you want to stay you can" he said finally. "I can take the couch?"

And stay she had. They were in the confused stages in the relationship where they were friends who seemed to walk around in their underwear. Which again was something his mother would have disapproved off. Now the week of mourning with this funeral was over and the crisis seemed to have died down Axel kinda had to know what the plan was because furthermore there was only room in that flat above the library for one bed and his back couldn't take much more of the couch.

The funeral though was coming to a close and Axel reminded himself as Snow White came over that it was not wise to remind her that for all her concern she had not done a damn thing to stop the persecution of his people and instead he diplomatically focused his attentions on the little boy who looked lost staring at his father's coffin. Axel who had been eighteen when his father had died had clutched at the body for what had felt like hours with that lost disbelieving look on his face and he could sympathise. Roland Hook looked at him and he poked his tongue out rather pleased with the quick smile that he got back.

Snow White was speaking to Giselle and then she shot Axel another interested and slightly weary look as if she was afraid he would morph out into a wendigo right there and then and claw her face off. Honestly since Camelot he had finally gotten a hold on years of supressed instincts and he had thought he was doing rather well all things considered.

"What did she want" he said turning to Elle and tucking his fingers into his coat. Giselle shifted her umbrella slightly. "Wanted to know if I wanted to come to the diner and get something to eat. I think she's worried that the Evil Queen is coming back to play more than she's worried about Regina so…I cannot be bothered walking back into the toxic environment that is going to be right now"

"You wanna say goodbye to Emma?" he asked pointing at the blonde.

Giselle snorted and then stalked off. Axel knew what this was. This was the anger side of grief which was good because he could deal with an angry woman rather than a grieving depressed one. He ducked back under the umbrella.

"Do you wanna move in with me full time?" he asked.

He could just hear his father's eyeroll from beyond the grave at that embarrassed blurting.

Giselle turned to look at him.

"As what your roommate?"

"No as my girlfriend"

Oh for the love off…he thought to himself. He had to get a grip.

Giselle looked as if he had just told her he had a desire to become a naked can-can dancer at night.

"Look…I don't know how this is done here Giselle but I like you and I know you like me. Actually I'm pretty sure I'm half in love with you and while you were—down there—" he said trying to think of a word that best described the Underworld. "I had chance to think and work on my reflexes a little. I've wasted so much of my life in a cage and I don't want to waste anymore. I'm sick of losing people that I love and—I don't want to lose you. You've said your father is having a baby with the woman you hate, you've said Emma Swan is not an option in that house because of the memories of your Dad and no offence but Regina Mills aint gonna be a barrel of laughs to live with right now especially not with her sister and a crying baby. And…look I'm not saying we have to sleep with each other off the bat but, we've had it good for the last couple of weeks, we can share a bed take it slow and if you wanna move out you can but, I wanna be the type of man that you come to when your in trouble or when you need help cause I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you and I'd like to be your boyfriend or partner or whatever the hell it is that they call it in this realm"

Elle stared at him as if he had lost it entirely and then she said something in a rather strange voice.

"You know when I was a kid, fifteen in the Enchanted Forest and all alone I was engaged. He died of plague before the curse hit but I was prepared to marry him because he was there and it was easy. And I said to myself that if I ever got the chance to be in a relationship again then I wouldn't let it be easy. I would fight for it. He's moved on now but—Axel I don't want something because I want a bed for the night I want something that's real, I think I can find it with you but…I don't want you thinking you can just use me for sex and then throw me away because I've already had one man whose thought that of me and I don't want it to happen again. if there's one thing I've learnt from this whole Camelot debacle it's that I deserve better. But I want to be with you, and life is too god-damn short in this town as you can see only too well. So let's be together"

Axel paused for a second mulling over her words and then he held out his hand and Giselle took it and they walked down the path to the diner as what he thought (unless he was really tragically reading this wrong) they were which was boyfriend and girlfriend.

* * *

Granny's Diner. The Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

She was sat at the table thinking over a coffee when Axel sat down next to her.

"So we are girlfriend and boyfriend right?" he asked finally. "Because I haven't done this in…well ever and I just want to make sure"

There was something about his nervousness that was endearing and Giselle thought back on the conversation they had had, they were boyfriend and girlfriend she knew, they were just skipping the whole holding hands and mooning over each other and going straight to the pretending that they could live together. it was simpler with Axel, he too understood what losing your family and not being sure of your place in this world was. He too new how to save a life-her life.

And her him.

"Yeah we are" she said finally. Axel beamed looking like a kid at Christmas and Giselle found herself smiling back at his enthusiasm. She knew that being in a relationship with her was not easy but she didn't want to ruin the moment.

The door opened then and Emma strode in. Giselle watched as she talked to Regina about something and then she turned to Giselle. There was something unbalanced in the way she walked. Emma had been gaunt and pale only an hour ago and now she looked like life had just been returned to her. Giselle felt that familiar sense of foreboding creep up her spine.

Instinct had told her long ago that that strange glint in Emma's eye was never a good thing.

"Giselle" Emma said as Regina stood up and came over looking somewhat controlled but like a single match would set her and her magic on fire.

"I need you and Regina to come with me, we have to talk privately"

"Now?" Giselle asked sagging a little bit more in her seat. She had just buried her father's best friend a week after he had died and she was sick of drama. The thing about being with Axel was that he was so uncomplicated and had no drama at least not on the surface. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be dragged into the mess that was this town anymore.

And that presented a whole other problem for her.

"It's personal" Emma said. Regina rolled her eyes and then turned to sit down at her table again looking like all she wanted to do was go home and crawl under the covers.

Whatever Giselle was going to say was cut off because at that moment there was an almighty roar of noise and the town shook again much like it had when they had gone from Storybrooke to Camelot and started this whole mess that had now seen two of their party dead. The whole town shook and she stood up sliding closer to Axel almost involuntarily who placed his palm wide on her waist.

Before she could even ask what that was (and she had sneaking suspicion who was behind it) the door to the diner opened with a bang, several people gasped and then a voice called out panic in every syllable and Giselle started almost jumping out of her skin when she saw who it was.

Because she knew that voice.

Her Dad. Killian Jones was stood in the doorway breathing heavily. He had died and then come back to life it seemed. Giselle would have a week ago done anything to here again. He looked from Emma to her and then back again even as Regina rolled here eyes and muttered something that Giselle couldn't hear but she was guessing wasn't very nice.

And then suddenly Giselle was angry. She was so angry she couldn't speak. This was the second time a father of hers had died and come back to life and both times they had ripped her heart out only to have her shoved back into the latest drama that she would inevitably become involved in.

She looked at Emma who was beaming and she felt furious with her for breaking the curse again. Sometimes the longing for the simplicity of Scarlett Gold whose worst nightmare was that the book she ordered online had not arrived in time or the coffee pot was out. She was exhausted with the drama. She did not want it anymore. She wanted the simple life that she could have had on the ship, in Storybrooke, with Axel. Now of course it was another story.

Her Dad moved to her his eyes wide and Giselle moved out of the way quietly so he wouldn't touch her. Axel came with her as they were holding hands and then they were outside into the street and then she turned and he caught her so that they were hugging together and she was clinging to him.

"Fuck" she said finally.

"Well" Axel said finally sounding more amused than anything else. "I'll say this you and this town are a lot alike—never a dull moment with either of you"

The door opened behind them and her Dad came out. Giselle knew without even looking at him that he had taken in the fact that she was half clinging to a man that he barely knew and she straightened meeting his eyes and forcing herself to try and remain calm. She was a mixture of grief and anger looking at him. She had watched him knowingly walk to his death and then he had come back and that was twice now that had happened with both of her fathers. Could it really be that her relationship with both of them had disintegrated that badly?

"Giselle…darling can we talk and—who is this?" he asked pointing at Axel.

"I don't have time to do this" she said into Axel's coat.

"How the hell are you alive?" she shouted at him. "Actually you know what I don't want to know, you walked to your death and then came back and you expect things to go back to normal—I mean…ugh!" and then she was gone walking down the high street anger in her veins.

"You know" Axel said later when she was banging around his apartment and he was sat on the couch reading a book. "My father used to say that if my mother was a horse he would jump no other because the one thing she never lacked was the incredible amount of courage and skill and tenacity" he looked up at her and shrugged as if to say that was how his parents worked.

"Your kinda like that. But as my father used to say as a woman my mother was incredibly difficult to live with. Somehow I think it's gonna be the same for you"

"And what did your mother do when she heard him compare her to a horse?" Giselle asked dryly.

Axel laughed. "She never saw it that way. She just kissed him"

Giselle snorted in spite of herself. "Nice try" she said turning back to the small kitchen unit and beginning to pace again.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Next Day. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle woke up in Axel's bed with Axel on the other side of her and the sunlight streaming into the apartment. She sat up and winced as the light hit her eyes and more importantly her phone. She could only imagine the contents after last night. It was hard to believe that this time yesterday she had been getting ready for Robin's funeral.

Axel blinked looking at her as she moved to find her clothes. Only what she had managed to grab from Regina's were here. The rest of them were either at her father's house or scattered somewhere in the apartment. She managed to find a clean pair of grey jeans and a black blouse with white piping and she pulled on her black boots that came to just over her knee and pulled on her old purple cardigan that had pockets for her phone and music and a little cash should she need it.

"Roland's going back to the Enchanted Forest today" she said pulling her hair upwards into a scraggy kind of bun. "I said I'd see him off"

"Ok" Axel said sitting up the sun dappling his rather defined chest and the three tattoos on it that Giselle could see. "I am going to see if that animal shelter job is going to work out and…can we talk later? I really wanna talk to you. Had a lifetime of silence"

Giselle grinned at him. "Yeah" she said remembering what it must have been like for him. "Yeah we can talk"

Roland was there when she arrived. The boy still looked sad but Giselle took his hug with one of her own. Nothing would make Roland smile again soon but he was young and he had people-Robin's people surrounding him and she had no doubt that soon Roland would smile again. Most of the Camelot people were taking the portal back with them and Giselle felt no regrets in seeing that part of her life go. She had heard Hades had killed Arthur—and she did not miss him nor the feelings he had inspired in her one bit.

Zelena was chatting to Granny, the Charming's were being the Charming's and she turned around to do—well who knew and saw her Dad standing there.

"I know your angry with me, god knows I've seen your mother in a mood like that too often" he said by way of a greeting. "But I wanted to talk to you. I realise that I am the second person in your life to die and leave you all alone and I wanted to talk to you. I…come on Giselle let's just talk, rage at me scream at me I don't care but please don't shut me out"

He looked so pitiful that Giselle didn't have the heart (as battered and damaged as hers was) to be mad at him anymore. She only nodded instead and then scrubbed a hand over her face trying to think of what to say.

"I am glad that you are alive" She said finally. "I am Dad it's just…I cannot keep doing this saying goodbye and then you come back and we act like everything is normal and then some other kind of drama happens. I cannot keep doing it" she shook her head and her Dad slid a hand down her back so he was pulling her close to him in a sort of sideways hug.

"I know darling. I don't want to keep doing it. Your father—has created a problem so to speak. He's tethered the town magic to the Olympian crystal and then Henry's gone and stole it to destroy magic—"

"Oh are you kidding me?" Giselle cried jerking backwards. "Did we not have this discussion when Emma tried to do this when Elsa was in town? You cannot destroy magic, what the hell is that hormone soaked kid think—"

But whatever Giselle was going to say next was cut off because the bloody wand in Zelena's hand had begun to glow. For a second they all stared at it even as Giselle noticed that her Dad was etching in front of her inch by inch. Whatever the hell was going on however came to an abrupt end when the portal opened despite Zelena's attempts to control it and it sucked her, her Dad, Snow White, David and Zelena through it.

When she woke up she was staring at the sky of a realm that was without a shadow of a doubt not her own. It was too clean and too quiet for them to be even in the woods populated as they were with Lost Boys and Merry Men who had chosen to stay behind or Arthur's people who wanted a modern life. The fact that magic did not work was nothing short of a confirmed disaster.

And to cap of a perfect day there was a twitchy little man cutting up flowers who got them all elocuted.

The last thing that Giselle thought before the purple current hit all five of them was that she really needed to prioritise the goals in her life because she might be getting too old for all of these scars and bruises.

* * *

The Warden's Cage. The Land of Untold Stories. Killian's Perspective.

He was annoyed. Actually annoyed was not the right word for it. Royally pissed off was about as accurate as he could get right about now. Killian had already been to hell and back, had to deal with his daughter's other father on some mad-cap scheme that would likely get them all killed (or demand their attention for the next few months at the very least), had to deal with his daughter's immediate rejection when she had seen him (which had hurt), had to apparently deal with some wendigo called 'Axel', (who Killian did not like one bit) and too cap matters off had being sucked through a portal, electrocuted and was now at the mercy of a man who his daughter's father had apparently pissed off.

What a fan-fucking-tastic day this was turning out to be.

Zelena had entrusted the wand (reluctantly) over to the man who was insistent he come with them back home and now she had taken to pacing up and down the length of the cell. David was sharpening the bit of wood he had managed to find and Snow White was trying to talk to his daughter who was sat on the ground her hands in her lap and looking board.

"Are you sure you don't know who the Warden is? Your father never mentioned him too you? You never saw him?"

"For the eighth time no" Giselle said rolling her eyes. "He was the Dark One for nearly a thousand years before I crashed into his life, I'm sure he had a lot of run-ins that didn't involve me"

He tried not to roll his eyes. He did. Really.

Snow White apparently giving up on his daughter moved to her husband and Killian took that opportunity to sit down next to her wincing at the feeling in his knees. He was not as spry as he used to be in Neverland he realised with an amused self-deprecating smile.

"So Axel…is he your…" he wanted to say boyfriend because he supposed that was what he and Emma were but in Camelot he and Emma had also been lovers and before that somewhat and the thought of using that word with his daughter in mind made him want to stick his hook in Axel's stomach.

Giselle shot him an amused look.

"We are boyfriend and girlfriend yeah" was all she said and then as an afterthought she added. "He asked me to move in with him."

Killian's first thought was no bloody way that was happening but then he remembered that Giselle was almost an adult now and that either way there was very little he could do to stop her.

"Do you think that's wise" he tried hoping he sounded tactful. "What about school?"

Giselle looked at him with a raised eyebrow and then laughed shortly without humour.

"I don't think I'm the type to get an education and go to college" she said finally. Killian knew that college was where the smart people went to-Emma had told him that and he frowned.

"But your smart" he said. "Your so smart Gizzy why don't you want to go to college and conquer the world? Be normal, isn't that what you want?"

Giselle bit her lip and looked down but whatever she wanted to say was cut off by the banging of the door. Killian tightened his arm around her as they stood up to see the Doctor coming towards them. He had the key, Killian had his daughter and soon they would be able to reunite with their family. For him that meant Emma, Giselle and Henry. For Giselle he had a horrible feeling that he knew who that would include.

* * *

The Land of Untold Stories/New York. Giselle' Perspective.

The problem Giselle knew was that she was not surprised by the identity of the warden/the doctor. Jekyll and Hyde. Giselle did not feel guilty however by admitting even to herself that Hyde was much better looking. It was a shame she mused that he was a lunatic villain-bit of sunlight on that white skin and he would have made quite the catch.

Hyde was Jekyll though and like Arthur in Camelot there was something about him that was putting Giselle's teeth on edge. Right now, David was helping him to his feet after a stirring battle with the split personality and a rather strong good vs evil speech that was bound to win him over to the Charming's. She meanwhile had grabbed her Dad's hand when she had seen him, and he had interlocked their fingers giving her a feeling of security and safety even though she knew it was because she was not strong enough to run the whole way. She might have been improving her physical fitness more now than she ever had when she was Scarlett Gold but she was still not used to being outdoors that much and running for her life. Also she knew that this was another type of proof that he was alive, that he was here. The death of her Dad and his return was a wound that she wasn't sure either one of them could get over.

They were in a land known as the Untold Stories. Giselle could understand why it was called that. It seems that this land was filled with people who had escaped both the first curse and the others that had followed and become stuck along the way. It was a land filled with culture and with strange sights and smells and people who were living their lives stuck in a rut. It was like Storybrooke only more…magical.

She forced herself to walk down the street following her Dad her boots clacking on the cobbles and she was pulled back into the conversation as Doctor Jekyll's voice pulled her squarely into reality.

"Everyone sees there worst self differently, some as a mirror images others…a literal monster, however the mind conjures it" he said looking around fearfully as if he expected the now separated Hyde to drop down from the sky.

"Well next time try and aggressive bunny rabbit" her Dad snapped. Giselle wondered if he knew he was making a Monty Python reference but then again she supposed he probably didn't know what Monty Python was and she had to bit down on her lip as she instinctually started smiling.

"Alright" David said patting her Dad on the back and then reaching so he could gesture her forwards as well. "Let's get out of here this way"

And then they were down another cobbled street that led to another cobbled street and another and then Hyde. Giselle stuffed both of her hands into her cardigan pocket and tried not to pretend that she was hopelessly undefended. She was seventeen now and she made a mental note to look up how old you had to be in Maine to get a gun licence. Or even if you did need a licence in Storybrooke considering Emma was the Sheriff.

She was interrupted from her musings and wonderings if she could land any good hits with her fists (probably not considering the magic Hyde possessed) when something hit her on the side of the head. She flinched away looking as more _things_ began falling onto the cobbles. The only good thing was that it was clear Hyde did not have a clue what was going on either.

"Pennies" David said picking one up.

"The hell?" Giselle asked looking confused, since when did pennies have any magic property and since when did they fall from the sky? That was strange even in the realms that did possess magic.

"Not pennies David" Snow White said as a part of the stone turned to water swirling around like the lake that had the siren in that had dried up when she was a teenager and her home had torn between a war between two women who both called themselves Queen. She was smiling as if she was pleasantly surprised and Giselle half turned to see Hyde staring at her. She remembered what he had said about hating the Dark One and she could not resist smirking at him as if to tell him even sub-consciously that he had, had his enemies daughter in his dungeon and had never known about it.

"Well I don't care whose making them" Zelena replied pushing past them and running at the portal. "Let's get out of here"

Her Dad grabbed her by the elbow and then the five of them were running the short distance to the portal closely followed by Hyde. Zelena jumped in followed by Snow and David and then her Dad and her. There was that feeling of falling and then her feet hit solid ground and she looked around to see Emma, Henry and Regina in what looked like the middle of Times Square near a fountain.

She looked around as Emma hugged her parents and then her Dad and then she saw it. Her father stood to the side eyes clasped on her. For a split second they stared at each other and her father smiled his eyes filled with a love that Giselle had not seen in a while and knew in the same way she had known back in the Enchanted Forest was true. She smiled back at him knowing herself enough to know that she was showing the same emotion and then someone shifted in front of her and her father was gone.

She hugged Emma feeling genuinely happy to see the older woman, and Regina who rubbed her back for a second and then Henry who may have started this whole mess but who was looking somewhat repentant when he caught her eye.

"Come on" Emma said linking her hands with her Dad's. "Let's go back to Neal's apartment and get some food. We can travel back tomorrow. For once I'm beat"

And with that the group of them headed back to her brother's apartment, and when her Dad slipped his arm around her waist Giselle leaned into him and relished the feeling of being part of a family.

* * *

Neal's Apartment. New York. Killian's Perspective.

Four pizza's between the lot of them, some hot chocolate, some whiskey and a hell of a lot of story sharing later things were finally quietening down. Regina, Emma and Snow White had gone to 'cure' Regina of her 'evil side'. Killian did not know if such a thing was possible but he knew if anyone could do this it was Regina. The woman had strength that would make anyone lesser than her tremble. David and Henry had fallen asleep and Zelena looked as if she was heading that way. Thankfully most of Roland's stuff, including a bed was there and while some of them would be on the floor, some of them would also be in a bed.

Giselle was in her brother's room and Killian took his cocoa and knocked on the door. Giselle opened the door and then moved back to sit on the bed. She was holding something in her hand and Killian saw it was a beaded bracelet that he knew was Bae's because it looked like she had pulled if from a dusty box that she had found under the bed.

She looked up and smiled at him as he sat down. "I think he'd understand if I took this" she said finally. Killian smiled. "I know he would" he replied getting comfortable. "He loved you very much"

"I was wondering" Giselle said finally. "If your serious about sticking around, you said long ago that if I wanted we could find our own place, I know Henry and you were looking but I don't know if Emma wants me around or what the plan is or…I know I told Axel before you came back that I didn't want hand holding or flowers or romance, but…I think I do"

She peeped up at him and all Killian could see was that baby who had looked at him with those wide eyes who had know grown into a strong girl, into a stronger woman who had been through so much with so little reward and was now on the cusp of her first love. Who was ready for her first love.

Giselle he thought there and then deserved the world. And he Killian Jones was going to damn well make sure his daughter got it.

"I think darling that Axel will understand" he said guessing her immediate concern. "I've seen the way he looks at you" he had indeed he thought in his head. "And I know that I want to be a family with you. If Emma wants some space then we will give it to her and find our own place, but if she wants me to move in I think she understands that much like Henry comes with her, I come with you"

Giselle smiled and Killian hugged to his side and relished every second spent with his daughter.

Had it really only been forty eight hours since he had been in hell?

* * *

Storybrooke. Giselle' s Perspective.

"I should get used to you skipping off to the next adventure" Axel said as Giselle stepped out of the car. He was leaning against the animal shelter and she grinned at him. He had gotten the job she knew by the smile on his face and even though her Dad moved past her with an eyeroll she only had eyes for Axel.

"I suppose I may have been a bit hasty in my disgust of them" she said as he slipped an arm over her shoulders.

Axel grinned at her as they walked down the street. "Look" Giselle said reaching into her pocket. "I even bought you a snow globe of New York"

Axel took it and then she remembered that he had no idea what a snow globe was.

"You shake it" she said gently showing him.

"Wow" Axel said eyes fixated on the snow as if it was real. "Are there people trapped in here?"

Giselle laughed. "No" she said finally. "It's not magic". She ignored Axel's mutter that it sure looked like it.

"Axel" she said turning to him so they were face to face on the side walk. "I don't want to move in with you. I know I said I didn't want hand holding or wooing or romance but…but I do. I wanna be normal, I wanna go back to school—I didn't think I did but I do and I want to talk for hours endlessly on the phone until Dad moans about the bill and I want to be with you, I just want to experience what ordinary seventeen year olds do"

Axel grinned and laughed suddenly. Giselle had no idea what was so funny to him.

"Elle" he said finally beaming. "What do you think I was going on about this morning when I said we needed to talk after work. I felt the same way"

Giselle gazed at him for a second and then she laughed too. Axel linked his fingers and then paused. "Does that mean, as your new boyfriend I can kiss you? Cause I've been wanting to do that since I saw you in those fancy ball gowns"

Giselle reached out and touched him on the face the stubble contrasting with her fingers.

"Yes you can kiss me" she said. When Axel did it was as gentle as it could be and Giselle had no problem increasing the kiss until she was breathless from it. One thing was for sure, she thought as they pulled apart, it was certainly very different from the kiss that she had shared with Arthur.

They carried on walking down the sidewalk and she leaned her head on his shoulder as they carried on. There was always going to be more drama in this town, there was always going to be another fight or another war and she was going to be caught in the middle of the fray because she was the Dark One's Daughter and the Pirate's Daughter and the past few months had taught her the hard lesson on how to be both. But she was also a person, a human being and a woman who was capable of being loved, who had a great capacity for love like her brother had said and she found that as she and Axel walked on down the street chatting that even if the peace didn't last long she would be happy and she would be there when her family needed her.

Whatever happened, that she knew was what mattered.

Family.

* * *

 **And let me know what you think with any luck the first chapter of the last arc of this story will be up sooner rather than later.**

 **Next Chapter-The first of Season Six. Giselle and Axel adjust to their new normal. Killian helps out Belle. Giselle goes back to School, there is a new villain, Emma is hiding something and Giselle must reconcile herself to becoming a big sister, even if her relationship with her father and his estranged wife is more...strained than ever. **


	52. Untold, Unspoken, Rise Up

**Hi, so here is another chapter and the first of Season 6 and the final arc of this story. I am going back to the shorter chapters and I hope you all enjoy.**

 **As I have said before spelling and grammar are not my strongest suit and when I get writing I do make mistakes. I apologise for any inaccuracies like always.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **I will hopefully have an update for you soon.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 52-Untold, Unspoken, Rise Up.

The first of Season Six. Giselle and Axel adjust to their new normal. Killian helps out Belle. Giselle goes back to School, there is a new villain, Emma is hiding something and Giselle must reconcile herself to becoming a big sister, even if her relationship with her father and his estranged wife is more...strained than ever.

* * *

 ** _"And I'll rise up, I'll rise like the day, I'll rise up, I'll rise unafraid, I'll rise up and I'll do it a thousand times again"_ (Song-Rise Up-Andra Day)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

Two hours. That was how long the peace lasted. Two fucking hours.

Axel said much the same thing when the rumbling finally stopped shaking his damn mugs. Fortunately nothing had broken because as Axel said he was not made of money. They had been—well they had been making out on his couch and she swore as if a bolt of lightening had trickled down his spine and she had leapt up with so much fear in her veins that she had almost fallen off Axel's couch.

"Well I knew I was good" Axel grumbled under his breath reaching for the phone that had clattered to the floor. "I have never seen the point of these you know. Too many buttons"

"There's one button" Giselle said reaching for her boots and flipping her hair back over her shoulder. "And trust me when you get the hang of it your gonna wanna need it." She finally found her boots and she swallowed standing up and reaching for her jacket. Axel watched her and then when he spoke it was in a decidedly cooler voice than he had used before-as if he was worried about upsetting her when he gave his opinion.

"I thought you weren't getting involved?" he asked finally. "I thought you had decided to take a step back and go back to school?"

"I did but this is my Dad and therefore I have to go and help him. I just got him back and I don't want to lose him again" she finally managed to get a boot on and then she turned just as Axel kissed her his hand sneaking up to grab her by the head and pull her down. Giselle leant into the kiss and then she was gone leaving Axel in his new apartment.

She crashed into the Charming's apartment and upon the second that she saw her Dad she threw herself into his arms. She had no idea how she had become so clingy (she did—really) but she was and she only allowed herself to relax when she felt the hand come around the small of her back and then she breathed in the scent of the leather and she swallowed again.

"What happened?" she asked into the leather of his jacket.

There was a pause and Giselle realised that she had probably interrupted half of the Charming's in some heated debate about what to do and that when she was clinging onto her father it might show more worry than she had shown in…well…forever. She pulled back and looked around and from the expression on Emma's face she supposed that she was not the only one who still remembered that dark weak where her father had been dead and she had been struggling to lift her head from Axel's bed.

"Hyde took a group from the Land of Untold Stories and there scattered in the woods" Emma said finally. Giselle nodded. "Hyde?" she asked finally. Emma shrugged in response. "I don't know, he's holed up in the Town Hall, were gonna go and try and drag him out."

"We?" Giselle asked trying to keep the hysteria and the fear in her voice at a low minimum as she tore her gaze between Emma and her father.  
"Yes" her Dad said not knowing what the hell was going on probably and then she was struggling to speak trying not to pretend that she was terrified at the thought of him going out in the field.

"I'm not gonna go then" she said finally. "I can go to Granny's and see if any people have come through. She needs to know what's going on—text me when you get Hyde in custody" and then she was gone before either Emma or her Dad's disconcerting eye could notice that her hands were shaking.

* * *

She felt sick she noted as she walked down Main Street. She felt sick to her very stomach because she knew one thing indefinitely, she could not live through what had happened in the Underworld again. Giselle admitted to herself it was hell—no pun intended and all she wanted to do was curl up in her bed and pretend that this threat was not coming towards her or her family. She wanted it ended. She wanted her Dad safe and sound and she knew that she could not be a part of the adventures and drama's that circulated around the Charming's and around Storybrooke if a load of people emerging from the sky pushed her towards a panic attack.

She ducked into Granny's and ordered herself a coffee and a slice of the banana and pecan loaf. She sat there stirring her coffee and wondering about why she was suddenly so afraid of letting her Dad out of her sight. She finished the coffee and then turned her thoughts (because she needed a distraction) to school.

Giselle's education—much like Henry's had been lacking somewhat because the two of them had been embroiled in major drama with their families. However this was her senior year, by the end of it she was graduating and while she wanted to graduate she knew that there was no sin in being a drop out, at least not in this town. There was no college so she risked leaving and forgetting about her memories or taking online courses and then what was the point of college? This whole thing was a mess from start to finish and it made her want to scream because she was smart and she knew it, she had done well in school and she wasn't sure if she wanted to go back and be a cross-breed between the Dark One's Daughter and the Pirate's Daughter because if Giselle was being truthful she had not yet—after everything she had been through—found a way to successful navigate the two lives that she had led and would lead.

And then there was the icing on top of the cake. Belle. Her pregnant step-mother and her absentee father whose second marriage was on the rocks and not looking very well.

The door to the diner chimed open and she looked up to see Henry come in through the doorway beaming.

"Hey Auntie Giselle" he said and Giselle had to wince because she had most certainly not given him permission to address her as thus and she did not want it known around town that she had. Henry say down across from her a stack of books in his hand.

"So Hook told me to tell you he's got Hyde…well…my Moms got Hyde and now he's in the asylum underneath the hospital. Anyhow the people from the blimp thing are still stuck in the forest but my grandparents are going to look for them and see if they can bring them back to Granny's.

Hopefully we can get some stories finished…" he rubbed his hand together in a crossover between a Bond villain Giselle thought and a fanfiction writer who could see the end to a story after months of work.

"Anyhow my Grandma told me to give you these and said that school starts on Monday. I'm already going and she's says that you need to get back into he swing of it as well if you ever want to graduate"

Giselle bristled, annoyed. Confused as she was about school she did not like the thought of being ordered around by Snow White and it was with that thought in mind that she tossed her hair back and said in what she hoped was a voice remnant of Regina, "What makes her think I'm coming back? I don't have too? Last time I checked I was not the only drop out in this town?"

Henry shrugged. "Hyde's in prision, my Mom is having teething trouble with her magic but nothing like last time, she's going to see Archie about it, she told Hook she think's is stress what with, you know" he finished lamely. "Anyhow there's no big bad this time. You can relax and enjoy your life, starting with history" He handed her the book and Giselle took it swallowing. Maybe Henry was onto something—maybe Emma was and seeking out Archie for help was something that she should do as well. God knows this panic and fear everytime her Dad went outdoors was not normal.

She was about to answer Henry truthfully when the door opened and she turned to see her Dad beaming when he caught sight of her. Giselle sighed to herself. The last thing she wanted was to let him down again when he asked her if she was going back to school. Henry beamed at her and then said something about dinner at his Mom's new house. Her Dad slid into a booth next to her and Giselle was left holding the stack of books that she was supposed to study for something she wasn't sure if she had the energy for.

"No wendigo today?" her Dad asked and Giselle rolled her eyes at the vaguely concealed glee in his tone. In another life she thought to herself her Dad and her father might have been friends or at the very least alike to each other. She shook her head turning back to the book.

"He's working"

"Oh. Too bad" yeah right she thought to herself.

"Anyhow I was wondering do you fancy staying tonight and helping out? Or do you have loads of studying too do? You ran off this morning so fast that I didn't have the chance to talk to you since New York?"

Giselle looked at him quizzically. "This going back to school really means a lot to you doesn't it?"

"Yes" he said automatically. "I know you think it's strange I get that, but…but Giselle I think that you are so smart. I think that you can do anything you want, Snow says your grades are good and you could easily pick up the work again. And I don't know about this college thing but I'm sure Regina could figure out something so if you stepped over the town line you'd be safe"

Giselle stared at him and then at the book in her hand and then with the sense that came with fighting a loosing battle she nodded.

"Alright, I'll give it a go, but don't get any idea's ok?"

Her Dad beamed and Giselle for once forgot about being terrified that he was going to die again and instead smiled back for once relieved that nothing sinister was around the corner. Even the absence of her father and Belle didn't worry her much today. Right now everything was perfect.

Oh how very wrong she was.

Again.

* * *

Eventually she popped over to Axel's after work and knocked on the door. That was what girlfriends did wasn't it? Bring their boyfriends desert? Anyhow she was stood there when he got the door. He looked like he had been in the middle of something but his smile was genuine when he let her in and it was then she noticed the law books scattered around the place that had not been there this morning.

"Are you becoming a lawyer or something?"

Axel blushed and it was stunningly cute.

"I was looking at the box things in the library and there were courses where you could study online. I know laws in this land are a little bit different than in Camelot but I figured that I want to help people, I don't want anyone going to prision and staying there indefinitely like I did just because their different. And if this is the best way to stop that then I will do just that"

He shot her a look. "You think I'm being stupid?" he asked finally. Giselle shook her head unable to contain the smile on her face. "No, I think your being a wonderful man"

Axel looked at her for a second as if to gaze weather or not she was lying and then his face split into a smile and Giselle came forwards the box with the cake crashing to the ground as he picked her up with so much energy if felt like her head was going to reach the clouds. He kissed her for a long time and Giselle unaware of what Hyde was planning, of where her father was right about now or that the Evil Queen was still alive or even that there was something else on the edge of the blackest horizon waiting to strike decided for once to let go of her believes that this was going to all come crashing down around and rose above everything and let herself for once, be happy.

* * *

 **So there is another chapter, the first of Season 6 and there is about nine more chapters left of this story. I hope to have them all published before I go back to school and I hope to have the second update up as soon as I can.**

 **Next Chapter-Killian makes Belle and offer. Rumple comes back home, Emma's magic is playing up and the Evil Queen returns to Storybrooke ruining Giselle's new and peaceful life and ensuring her fear for her family is justified. **


	53. Staring At The End

**Hi, so here is another chapter. I am trying to publish the last of these chapters for this story before school starts again so I hope you all enjoy. This chapter again deals with the earlier episodes and the next chapter will deal with the end of Hyde before I tackle the remaining chapters on the later parts of Season 6.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine,**

 **I hope you all enjoy this chapter and a big thank you to all of you who have read and reviewed and followed and favourited so far. It means more than words can say as I slowly but surely come to the end of Giselle's story.**

 **Please Read and Review and Enjoy**

* * *

Paradise Lost 

Chapter 53-Staring At The End 

Killian makes Belle an offer. Rumple comes home. Emma's magic is playing up and the Evil Queen returns to Storybrooke ruining Giselle's new and peaceful life and ensuring her fear for her family is justified.

* * *

 ** _"Remember that all throughout history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always_** **." (Mahatma Ghandi)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective

She dressed for school on Monday and stared in the big mirror in her bedroom as if she was looking around and seeing a different person. She could see herself with her newly styled hair. She had gone and cut the straggly bits that had developed since her adventures in the Underworld and so that it rested just below her shoulders and then she had gone and had side bangs cut in so that she looked a little bit different than how she had done the last time that she had started school.

She dressed in her school uniform and it felt strange. She felt the tights slide over her legs and the skirt that she had, had to buy new along with her blazer and shirt. She still hoisted it up further up her legs rather like she had done before and she pulled her hair back, so it fell on her shoulders and loosened her tie.

She was just walking to school when she heard someone shout her name. she turned her boots clacking again (because nothing would ever take that away from her) and she saw her Dad jogging out of Granny's beaming at her.

"I was hoping to catch you before you left for school, I wanted to…" he trailed off as if he didn't know what to say and then he held out the coffee in his hand. Giselle could smell pumpkin spice from there and she had to blink rather rapidly because she really wanted to take that coffee and it reminded her of a time when she had been so naïve as to think the worst thing that could happen was that she got maths the same morning as chemistry.

God she had been a stupid kid once hadn't she?

Instead she took it and smile. "Thanks" she said finally. She noted that the diner was busy and then remembered that her Dad and Emma too had probably been up half the night ensuring that the people who had come of that balloon thing had managed to get some sleep and some food down them.

"How's it going in there?" she asked finally.

"Good I think, err—I was about to ask you the same question, have you…err…have you seen your father at all since New York?"

"Dad he's been missing two days. He's good but not even he can yank Belle out of that box without True Love's Kiss in two days."

"He did" her Dad said finally. "Belle just arrived in the diner"

Giselle bit down on her immediate response which was not kind. She had not yet mentally got her head around the fact that she was going to be a big sister and that Belle was pregnant with her father's child during their one night reconciliation. Personally she had not gotten over the Will situation even if that had fallen by the post.

"Well I've not seen him" she said finally. "Besides he's not done anything this time around. If Belle's having marriage issues then I suggest she take it up with Archie. She did know what she was getting into when she married him"

She took a swig off her coffee. "Please tell me she's not living in my house again? I cannot deal with the smell of puke first thing in the morning."  
"No, there…not together any more I don't think and she wants to raise the baby far from him and the drama that comes with him and so—I…err…I offered her a bed on my ship"

Giselle nearly spat a mouthful of coffee on the floor. Wiping her chin on the back of her hands and hoping she had not messed up her foundation she looked at her Dad with wide eyes and when she spoke she noticed her voice had gone up several volumes.

"You've done what?"

"I—look Giselle I know you and Belle have issues" he ignored Giselle's snort. "But I owe her, I did try to kill her twice"

"Pity you never went for the third strike" Giselle muttered. Her Dad delicately ignored her and carried on.

"Look she's going to be on the boat, it's only until she get's a place for herself and the baby."

"I wouldn't count on it" Giselle muttered, again her Dad ignored her but Giselle was too busy thinking of the two homes that she had, had growing up and how Belle had, had no problem making herself perfectly comfortable in either one of them. She sighed feeling the tell-tale signs of a headache coming on. She knew she had to stick to her guns if she wanted to get to school.

"I'm going to go to school" she said grumpily. "I'll see you when I get back"

* * *

Axel was loitering outside of the gates when she came out two days after that conversation. As far as she knew her father was at the shop because she had not seen him. It would have made her angry once but Giselle was not that teenager who believed the Dark One could do no wrong. That teenager was dead somewhere along the lines of hell and Neverland. He would seek her out she knew that—he always did, but she was not running to him either. For the first time in her life she was not running to do her father's bidding, not running to his praise, she had learnt finally the long hard lesson of what it is to live alone.

She was not the only one to return to school.

Snow White had returned as well as enthusiastic as ever especially since she had shot an arrow into a tree for a physics class. They were strapped for teachers here and many children of both the lower school and upper school had shared teachers in the past. Being a Senior, Giselle had the luxury of not sharing a teacher and privately she thanked her lucky stars that Snow White was not teaching her anything as she knew for her and for her character it would have been a complete waste of time.

"Damn" Axel said leaning against the chain link fence and flashing his fangs to any child that looked at him funny (Giselle supposed that was his way of amusing himself as he had waited like some common criminal leaning against the chain link)

"You in that uniform makes me wanna do real bad things"

Giselle laughed without meaning too. Her school skirt was hiked up around her waist and she was tired after her afternoon with maths and she felt an arm go around her waist. Axel smelled like the shower gel that she had bought him and some sort of soap that she thought they might use at the animal shelter to wash the animals.

"Why are you here? I thought you were working this afternoon." Axel rolled his eyes once and then grinned though it was a little bitter. "I got a visit from Emma Swan. She told me to collect you and then meet at the Station thingy—she had an announcement"

Giselle stopped dead. An Announcement? Oh Christ.

If her other father had knocked up someone then it really would be too much.

Axel must have caught the look on her face because he grinned at her as if he had found something incredibly funny. "I know" he said reading her like an open book. "I thought that too—but I don't think so, she looked more tired than anything and not the kind of pregnancy tired my mother was when she was pregnant with my little brother" Giselle noted the mention of Axel's mother who like the rest of his family was hardly mentioned unless he wanted them to be mentioned. She felt however him tug her hand and she followed him up the steps and into the street out of school still smiling.

When she got to the station however she hardly smiled once.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Police Station. Axel's Perspective.

It seemed the Evil Queen was back. That might be over simplifying it but that was all Axel really got from that perspective. Emma Swan (and wow she had a lot of hair—how did she run with all that hair?) told them and Axel had a second with all the vision of a predatory magical creature to take in everyone's expressions and it was clear that with the exception of Giselle and her stepmother everyone else knew.

His eyes wandered at some point during what he was sure was a very interesting discussion about what to do next (and really what were they to do next? Well Axel knew but he wasn't going to say.) to Giselle's father. He was leaning against the wall hook resting on the window ledge and Axel measured him wondering what it was about him that had sent most of the people in this room down to the Underworld with him.

He looked away slightly and rocked a little on his heels. He knew without looking that Giselle had gone white again and her mouth which this morning had been curled into one of the more gorgeous smiles that she had possessed and was now in a straight line as she stared at Emma with a blank gaze every now and then her eyes flittered every few seconds to her father whose gaze was still fixated on the woman he loved.

It took Axel a second to register what it was and then when it hit him—the reason for her behaviour and the reason for the way she was acting. She was scared. She was scared of losing the pirate now more than she had ever been. That week where he had been the one taking care of her must have damaged her more than he had thought. She must have lost her wits and more if she thought that the mayor's double could take away her Dad like that. But then again…he thought what he would do if he had his Dad back after so long thinking he was dead and then there was another threat on the horizon and he had to look away before his eyes welled up. That for him would not happen.

Regina was speaking now the dark-haired woman who had legs that (the voice in Axel's head that was his older brother) were to die for. Axel wondered how she was coping and then saw by the steely glint in her eyes that perhaps Regina knew that there might be only one way to destroy her other half. For Axel only knew one way and it sure as shit wasn't a good one. Not for someone who still had a relatively young child.

The meeting (if that was what you could call it—personally Axel thought it was a lot of speeches about hope, and he could see what Giselle meant when she said too much of that could put your teeth on edge) was concluded and Axel stretched a little his back screaming in protest after so long on his feet. He thought about asking Giselle if she wanted to grab something to eat but she had a look on her face that said a thousand words and none of them were nice.

She was out the door before Axel could so much as raise an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't go after her if I were you mate" said a voice next to him and he turned to see Hook watching him with knowing eyes. "Take it from experience going after my daughter in that mood doesn't do any good"

Axel ran a hand over his face and then the words were out of him before he could stop them.

"You get she's terrified she's going to lose you again right? This whole thing-this Evil Queen coming after you and your—girlfriend or whatever she is—she's terrified she's going to lose you. You didn't see what she was like during that week you were dead. Trust me she wont live through that again. And you and I both know your girlfriends got a problem with magic, anyone with a hint of magic in their veins can pick up on the haywire energy around her. And you and I both know Elle's not stupid. She picks up on things, you might wanna tell her you're not going to die. Even if she doesn't believe you it might make her sleep better at night"

And with that he was gone walking out into the sunlight after all those years in captivity he still considered a luxury and down the street in search of something coated in chocolate.

He could just imagine both his older and younger brother's approval. Gods he missed them.

* * *

Gold Manner. Storybrooke. Rumple's Perspective.

His hair still felt strange, but tomorrow he was going to see Belle. Once Rumple had sorted out some adequate protection for his estranged wife and unborn child (more than the pirate had suggested anyway) he would look at the chessboard and see where the Evil Queen was planning to make her move. He would have put money on Zelena but still…he might have taught her most things but both Regina and her ego were still capable of making decisions by themselves.

He sat down still trying to ignore the strange feeling that came with barely having any hair when the door slammed open with such a force he knew it was only one of two people and considering Emma Swan was not going to come to him for help with those shaky hands, (at least not without her army that she called family at her beck and call) and that meant it had to be his daughter.

He didn't know why but he was surprised she was still living here. It was like he had woken up one morning and realised that Giselle's loyalty was not as constant as it always was. There was still love between the two of them but not the same dependency that there had been. The girl he had raised in the castle safe from the monsters that would take her away from him was growing up.

She double checked when she saw him sat in his armchair and he knew the hair had thrown her off for a second before she recalibrated herself.

Giselle was a lot like Milah when she was mad Rumple mused to himself before the storm started. Nothing would stop her when she got the chance.

"What the hell" Giselle said finally. "Are you doing with the Evil Queen? And don't lie, because I can tell."

Rumple nodded. Giselle was a big girl now he supposed. "Sit down" he said finally. "You want a seat at the table then you get it. Sit down and I will tell you what I think she's going to do and I will tell you what I am going to do"

Giselle paused for a second watching him and then she dumped her bag and sat down at the table in her school uniform and Rumple had a moment where he remembered her as Scarlett Gold and life was so decidedly easier.

"I'm listening" she said finally.

Rumple smiled.

* * *

 **And there it is, I hope you enjoy and hopefully the next chapter will be up soon.**

 **Next Chapter-(Entirely Rumple and Giselle)-Rumple and Giselle have a confrontation and heart to heart about his past and future actions her place in his life and the answers and questions that they have both been seeking and thinking since before the first curse in a hope to put the past behind them. Killian meanwhile needs his daughter**


	54. A Bad Moon Rising

**Hi, so here is another chapter and this one is one scene and takes place entirely between Giselle and Gold. The next chapter will speed things up. I think the next two chapters (according to notes) will take us up to the wish realm and the introduction to Gideon and then the rest of the story will take care of that arc.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter.**

 **I want to thank all of you for carrying on with me during this story, I want you to know that your faith in me to carry on with this story is so important to me and I will give this story the ending it deserves.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost 

Chapter 54-A Bad Moon Rising 

(Entirely Rumple and Giselle)-Rumple and Giselle have a confrontation and heart to heart about his past and future actions her place in his life and the answers and questions that they have both been seeking and thinking since before the first curse in a hope to put the past behind them. Killian meanwhile needs his daughter after he receives some devastating news.

* * *

 ** _"Oh, tell me you love me. I need someone on days like this, I do. On days like this…Oh tell me you love me. I need someone, on days like this I do"_** **(Song-Tell Me You Love Me-Demi Lovato)**

Storybrooke. Gold Residence. Giselle's Perspective.

"What do you want to know?" her father asked and that was such a loaded question with so many possibilities that she paused sitting down and thinking hard. What did she want to know? God there was so many answers and right now she knew that her father in that instinctual way that she had always known was prepared to tell her truth. Either way she knew when he was lying. She had always known. The only difference was that right now Giselle wasn't prepared to look the other way. She took a deep breath as her father waited patiently for her to start.

"What was your relationship with Regina like in the Enchanted Forest? What was it really like behind the covered-up mirrors?"

Her father raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I was her teacher" He shot her a strange look and then in the freaky way he could read her he understood and laughed once out loud. "Oh, my darling I wasn't sleeping with her if that's what your asking me" he shook his head.

"She did" Giselle said confidently. Her father looked pleasantly surprised. "I ensured you never saw her" he said quietly. Giselle rolled her eyes and couldn't resist the sardonic smile that she knew made her look rather like a teenager that she had once been and not who she was now.

"Father I can read between the lines and she was the Evil Queen for twenty-eight years. She used to come into the shop and the chemistry she was omitting was so strong it nearly knocked me over whenever I was in the back, nine times out of ten."

Her father raised an eyebrow. "Nothing never has or ever will happen between me and Regina" he said finally. "I confess when she was the Evil Queen things were different. Cora was dark and dangerous and alluring but when you see the same level of darkness in someone who is as dark as you—it creates a sense of attraction. But she was my student and I was her teacher. When the Evil Queen was at her best it was like seeing my success. And I needed her, I used Regina, and don't look surprised darling Regina used me. We were means to each other's revenge. I wanted my son. She wanted Snow White's head on a plate. Anyway, I was never sleeping with her. Even if she wants something from me in that sense. The Evil Queen is just something to pass the time"

Giselle nodded. He was telling her that Belle was the only woman he was interested in, in his usual cryptic way and she found that she wanted to steer away from the dangerous and frankly disgusting waters. She bit her lip and then she asked the second thing that was on her mind.

"Are you going to do anything stupid? With Belle I mean? Because Emma is looking for an excuse to throw you in a cell and lock you up after that shit you pulled in New York"

"I am not going to harm Belle" Her father said steadily "But I will be a part of my son's life. Oh yes I forgot to mention, you are going to have a baby brother"

Giselle's initial teenage response was that she had, had a brother that she had loved very dearly and nothing that Belle could produce would ever measure up but she clamped down on it. Even for her voicing that opinion might be going a bit too far.

"You left me in New York" she said finally. Her father turned to look at her.

"Of course I did. What did you expect me to do? Hug you with the Pirate glaring at me? In a land without magic? With Emma Swan and her horde prepared to wrestle me to the ground? You know who I am, you're probably the only person who does? Did that amount of risk sound like something I would do?"

Giselle tapped her boot on the ground for a second thinking hard. She knew what she wanted to ask him. But the heart of the matter was, was that she didn't know weather or not she was brave enough to ask those questions.

"I feel like people want me to choose a side. Not you, not even Dad. I think he get's that you're a part of my life even if it makes him sick to his stomach. But Emma, Belle, Snow White, Charming. Everyone wants me to help them and helping them means hurting you. I see it from your perspective but…there my family too. I just—at some point I went from having you to having everyone and I don't know how to walk the thin line between them"

Her Dad hummed under his breath. "Yes you do have a dilemma don't you?" he sighed.

"Giselle I have shown considerable restraint with the Pirate. I have explained myself constantly. I have priorities that differ to Emma Swan's though once upon a time we thought the same. Even then her darkness had a good side effect to it. I chose my allies based on what I wanted and I wanted Belle, I wanted a house and children and don't think for a second that I didn't want you. I did. I won't apologise for going after what I wanted. I won't apologise for going after Emma Swan in order to do it. She's the product of the thing that nine times out of ten I despised in the forest. True Love. That and true darkness were always going to crash."

"You never apologised for Zelena" Giselle said quietly "You never apologised for ripping out Hook's heart"

"No" her Dad said finally. "I did not. Zelena…" he pulled a face. "Was not a choice I chose lightly. I was running out of allies and I needed her. She needed me. And I'd had plans…well it doesn't matter now but I had hoped Emma Swan would take care of her for me. As for Hook's heart. You may think the man the wronged person in our little story but I can assure you in the beginning he gave as good as he got. He cost your brother his mother. He cost me my family. He hurt my child. And I always go after the people that hurt my children. Even if they don't see it coming"

"I don't want you to hurt him" Giselle stressed clinging to the one point. "I don't want you to hurt him father, can you not do that even for me? Because I don't think that I can defend you on that again. He's part of my life too now"

Her father paused and Giselle thought desperately that this might be the hardest question she had ever asked him. Could he stop trying to kill a man that he hated and that hated him for the daughter the two of them both loved. She looked at him as he looked at her and then something in his face shifted slightly.

"Darling" he said finally and his hand found hers. "Your all I have left. You. You're the one constant thing in my life, the one loyal thing that I can always relay on. My little girl. If you want me to curb my natural instincts for you then I will"

Giselle smiled and leaned back in her chair and then something wicked came to her mind. He had promised her a change and she believed him, she had seen the lies he had told Belle in comparison to what he had told her and she knew he was lying to Belle and not to her. She had to admit, It gave her a thrill of satisfaction that she had not felt in a long time.

"And for what it is worth" Her father said finally. "I am sorry. It was not my intention to hurt you. Sometimes I look at him and I see the man who took away my son's mother, the man who mocked me on his ship and the man who was the reason why my son had to believe his mother was dead because that was less painful than knowing she had left him for a man half her age. Hurting you was never part of the plan. Believe it or not but the only thing I have ever done even when I didn't want to, when you were a reminder of the man and the woman that I hated was protect you. You have something about you that makes people want to love you. It's a gift Giselle. If it can work on me it can work on anybody"

Giselle snorted even though her heart felt lighter than it did in weeks. She sat thinking long and hard and looking into the fire and then without warning the question that she had always been too afraid of the answer to ask, burst out of her as if it couldn't be contained any longer.

"Did you ever love me?"

Her father turned to her then and Giselle noted the surprise on his face. She didn't want to look at him when he gave her the answer, but she didn't want to look away. She couldn't look away.

"Giselle" her father said softly and then he reached out to touch her under the chin and then she was looking at him in the eye. There was a pause where they stared at each other and then when her father spoke it had more conviction in her tone than she had ever heard before and she knew as she had known before that he was telling the truth.

"There were times both before the first curse and after, many times, even now when you were and are the only thing that has kept me alive."

Giselle let out a sob she didn't even know she had been holding. Again, she was back as she had been when she was Scarlett Gold, safe and secure in her father's love for her, confident in that love for her and she grinned burying her face in his jacket as he hugged her even at the strange angle.

She pulled away and wiped away the smudges that were her eyeliner as she sat down. Her father watched her for a second and then he nodded as if he surmised that she was done with her questions.

"There's a bad moon rising Giselle" he said finally. "It's not just the Evil Queen. I've been doing this for a long time and I know when something dark is on the horizon but—but I think this might be different. Now Miss Swan is in control of her faculties and her magic again. I on the other hand might be sitting this one out. I have more important private priorities"

And just like that Giselle knew that he was done talking to her. Her father had struggled to be honest in the past and now that she had the answers that she wanted she didn't plan on pushing him further. Instead she was happy with the information she had been given and that was the end of it. This was how it worked between them, always had, always would. The thing was now Giselle believed him based on her own instincts and not on the simple knowledge that just because he was her father his word was law.

"Do you want to grab some take out tonight?" she said finally. Her father shot her a strange look. "Have I ever wanted that? No, I need to go to the shop and grab something and while I'll doing that you can start on the pasta that was on the fridge" he winked at her and then with a poof of dark red smoke he was gone.

Giselle rolled her eyes again and then stood up moving to the island to begin cooking smiling to herself. Her father was always going to be her father. It was then that the doorbell rang and she put the knife down wondering who it was that would knock on the door at this time of day and risk running into her father. Oh she hoped it wasn't Belle. She could only be polite with her for so long regardless of the fact that they had been through a lot bound by their love (though it seemed not totally permendant) for the same man.

It was not Belle. It was her Dad.

For a second she stared at him and then she took in the obvious signs that something was wrong. She took a deep breath to ask him something and then she saw the tell tale signs that his composure was cracking as if something terrible was about to happen.

"What?" she said feeling like the migraine that never went away was going to come back with a terrible force and she swallowed standing up straighter and she bit her lip as he took a deep breath and leaned his hook on the door. She winced a little wondering how her father's patience was going to keep up if her Dad scratched the oak with his hook.

"What's happened?" she asked again taking in the lost look on his face. She had never seen him like that and she went to ask him a third time what was wrong but he cut across from her before she could.

"Emma is going to die"

Giselle recoiled from him in shock but her Dad's face seemed to crumple and she wrapped him in a hug because—what else could she do? He gripped her back like she was the only thing keeping him standing and she found that she was wide eyed at the thought that Emma Swan could die.  
Her father had been right she thought gripping her distraught Dad tighter as he shuddered out his fears to her. There was a bad moon rising indeed.

* * *

 **And there it is, I hope you enjoyed it. I am trying to finish these chapters as rapidly as possible so hopefully I will be able to update the sooner the better.**

 **Next Chapter-Giselle and Killian finally have a heart to heart as they are trapped with Henry on a boat under the sea. Henry and Giselle have a talk about the new roles they have to play and Giselle is made an interesting offer. Meanwhile Axel meets Belle. **


	55. The Middle Way

**Hi, so here is another chapter. This one's has changed a little when I was writing it than what I said it would be in the last chapter which does happen. Therefore the next chapter will end the first arc of Season 6. I am going to skip over some parts of the last episodes of Season 6 before the show took it's Christmas break simply because they all don't fit in with the story I plan to tell but certain events will be mentioned including a character and a relationship that I love.**

 **This chapter does mention caffeine pills used to stay awake. I am not American therefore I do not know how medication like that works over the counter or not but this is fiction and this is Storybrooke so there is some lapse. Again this might be triggering for some people so please feel free to skip that bit of this chapter. Also I just want to state Giselle is not addicted to them. She's taking them because she's stressed and scared and she feels alone. But fear not, the next chapter brings about this arc of Giselle's isolation that has been going on for a long time.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing Is mine.**

 **Also on another note. I like Henry, I like the character, but in this episode with Hook I really wanted to smack him. So no hate for that please.**

 **Please Read and Review and I will try and update as soon as I can. I want to finish this story before uni starts so updates will be as quick as they can.**

* * *

Paradise Lost 

Chapter 55-The Middle Way 

Giselle struggles and Killian learns something worrying about his daughter as they trapped in a boat beneath the sea. Henry and Giselle have a talk about the new roles that they are to play and Giselle is made an interesting offer. Meanwhile Axel meets Belle.

* * *

 _ **"When it's swim or sink, when trouble's up ahead and there aint nothing left but gut instinct, to get you out alive. No time for second guessing, ain't even a question. Hey when the water's rising, when the flood gates open. Ain't no slowing, you're the one I'm finding"**_ **(Song-Hayden Panettiere-Cast of Nashville)**

Storybrooke. The Docks. Giselle's Perspective.

Giselle had not been sleeping since the declaration that Emma Swan was dying. In fact, not sleeping was the better way to explain what she had been going through. She had spent the last couple of weeks in a sort of haze that was getting stronger and stronger. Her body was locking down and any relaxation and peace she had gained since the Underworld had long since gone. Her lip was bitten to shreds and she had not been able to eat much. She felt constantly like she was inches away from bursting into tears.

Because she knew how this story was gonna go. Her Dad was going to defend the woman that he loved and if Emma died—then he would die or at least a part of him would and then they would be back in the Underworld and the whole circle would never end. No peace, no happy ending.

And what pissed her off, so much was that there was a way for this to end and it was Emma that was standing in the way. Always it was a Charming who had to make life more complicated. They had to save everyone from the Underworld, they had to save the Lost Boys, they had to fight to save Camelot from Arthur. They could never just flee and do the job that they were supposed to do could they? Emma could snap her saviour genes in two and get the happy ending she constantly complained that she was never going to get, and she wouldn't touch them. She trusted their family and Giselle wanted to smack her because she couldn't understand why she wouldn't take this chance. Emma was more than a saviour or at least to her she was. Emma was her friend and perhaps one day her stepmother and she didn't—couldn't understand why anyone would want the saviour more than the woman.

She didn't even know what she was doing, the insomnia and the panic and the fear so strong even with Hyde dead that she didn't see herself in front of the counter in the pharmacy until she had the bottle of energy pills (the kind that kids used to keep awake when they were studying or so she had seen in school) in her hand. The clerk was over helping some hysterical teenager—probably from Camelot who didn't know what a tampon was and she stuffed them into her bag and walked out. She didn't care about the shoplifting charge, she cared about keeping away the nightmares and if this was the only way she could do it then she would do it.

She was down by the docks coffee in hand because Axel was at work, her Dad had moved in with Emma and her father had gone off to the shop probably to spend time with the Evil Queen because it was clear that he was helping her even if everyone around him was oblivious-even Regina.  
She stared at the little box of pills. She needed to stay awake, and quite frankly she didn't want to sleep. Every night when she did lay her head down on the pillow she was woken up by the image of her Dad being pierced with a sword and she besides he would need her, they always needed her.

She undid the box and popped two into her mouth with the coffee and then she heard the sounds of feet pounding on the pavement. She turned stuffing the box into her bag and stood up shaking a little as Henry Mills came running down the side of the decking. Giselle raised an eyebrow at him as he skidded to a stop in front of her but Henry for once did not smile at her. Actually for the first time Henry looked furious. It was the first time she had ever seen that look on his face before.

"Did he call you?" he said breathlessly waving something gold in her face.

"Henry I am not in the mood" Giselle said flatly. "What the hell are those?"

"The Sheers of Destiny or whatever they are called. Hook took them from my Mom and is now hiding them. He intends to use them on her"

"Very sensible suggestion" Giselle said waspishly wishing the pills that were supposed to keep her alert and awake were actually doing that. Instead she felt sluggish and tired and snappy.

"No it's not" Henry said and Giselle was about to demand he stop acting like a brat and start seeing the big picture when she heard the sound of pounding footsteps and had to close her eyes against the groan that her head gave when she was struggling to stand up. Her body was desperate to sleep but she knew that she wasn't going to get to sleep easily again. All she could see was the sword that Emma had shoved into her Dad's heart going in as easily as it was a knife sliding into butter and she had to turn away as the argument that Henry and her Dad were having just seemed to continue without her really listening to it.

She only looked up from where she was resting her head against the coffee lid when she felt a hand touch her arm. It was her Dad but he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were clasped firmly on the water that was rising behind her and Giselle took in with one sweep of her eyes the two men standing behind them with their pikes looking like some old fashioned sailors.

"Run" her Dad said when the thing (because it sure as hell wasn't a ship) rose from the sea but the three of them didn't get far. Because they were outnumbered and outgunned and quite frankly Giselle couldn't see a way out other than getting on the damn thing because someone wanted to speak to her Dad.

She climbed on board cursing in her head the fact that her Dad had a long history of pissing off other sailors and now they were all coming to collect.

"Typical" Henry muttered under his breath. Giselle for once agreed with him.

* * *

She had spent the majority of her time aboard the Nautilus pacing around the small room. Being in her school uniform (because Seniors had an extra day that most of the lower school had off) she had no weapons to use, nothing in her bag and a pounding headache to boot. She spent most of the time trapped in her own thoughts trying to keep her head above water (pardon the pun) when she heard Henry his voice loud and clear like a bell cutting through the fog of her brain.

"You're not even a part of this family"

Oh, now she was pissed. The little shit had been going on and on with a holier than thou attitude and it was driving what was left of her sanity up the wall. How dare he talk like that to her father who had gone through hell and back to keep him with his mother—it was hardly her Dad's fault that he was putting Emma's best interests before what she wanted. Trusting your family could only go so much-true Giselle didn't have many people she trusted but she was now ranking Henry even lower than she usually did.

She waited until her Dad had left in order to go and find some pool that they could escape out of and then without turning around she said very carefully and coldly so that there was no way that Henry could claim to misunderstand her.

"Don't do that to him again"

Henry turned to stare at her again and then when he spoke it was in deceptively surprised tone.

"Do what? He was going to take away my Mom's powers. Being the saviour is what brought us together and he comes in and wants to take it all away. He doesn't trust us. And I can't believe that you trust him. Or your other father"

Giselle turned. "Henry there are times when I really like you" she said in what she hoped was a patient kind of tone. "And there are times when I really want to smack you. Guess which mood I'm in. He wants your mother alive regardless of weather or not she's the saviour. In fact the only person that wants Emma to be the saviour even when it costs her, her life kiddo is you. So take a look in the mirror before you start judging people"

Henry gaped at her open mouthed for a second and then—

"Why do you care? You hate anyone your fathers date everyone knows that"

"I don't hate your Mom. I actually quite like her"

"You hate Belle"

"I don't—" she rubbed her forehead feeling her headache increase. "Henry, I don't hate anyone it's just" she sighed and then sat down on a wooden chest of draws. "You wanna know the truth? I grew up in a small wooden cottage with a thatched roof and my bed was a loft. I went to the Dark Castle on weekends until I was fourteen. I had a guardian of sorts, a stepmother if you will Henry, her name was Rosanna. She was like a mother to me. No Henry she was a mother to me. And it was a normal life, or as normal as it could be. I couldn't play with the other children for fear they would know who I was or who my 'father' was. So I stayed inside with my books and Rosanna. She died when I was fourteen. Plague ripped apart the village, it was the first time that I had lost someone from it. So I moved into the Dark Castle, your grandfather—well as you could imagine was not what you would call—open when it came to emotions. I bottled it up and I grieved in private, but it was maybe six, seven weeks later and he moved Belle in. And I can assure you the battle lines between the two of us were not just drawn by me"

She looked up running a hand through her fingers to see Henry looking at her with a strange look on his face.

"Is that why you don't like to talk about your family, or why you don't trust easily? Or why you don't like Belle?"

"I don't trust easily Henry because everytime I have gotten comfortable in my life someone close to me has pulled out the rug and sent me spiralling. As for Belle…I could have gotten over my grief I admit and there was a point before Elsa where I had, but she knew what she was marrying, she knew who she was marrying and the second things didn't go her way she threw my father over the town line and began a relationship with someone else before his bed was even cold. Change does not come easily to the Dark One after four centuries of being one. She should know that and what she did that day when she took that dagger into her hands is why she should have never been trusted with it something I might add your family has never seen fit to comment on. That is something I cannot forgive."

Henry made a noise as if to continue speaking but Giselle cut across him.

"And as for right now those sheers no matter what you think can send peace to us all. Your other mom will defeat the Evil Queen and then our lives can go back to normal. Emma can get her happy ending, I can get some sleep and we can finally all stop looking over our shoulders wondering how long were gonna be able to sleep in our beds. Emma's a person before she's a saviour. Stop acting like she's not because it comes across as unfeeling and selfish."

Henry gaped at her again and then closed his mouth and by the frown on his face he was clearly thinking hard.

"Hook's not my Dad" he said finally.

"No" Giselle said finally smiling slightly at the thought of her brother. "But I man like your father only comes around once in a while"

"You don't look—well" Henry said finally changing tact. Giselle laughed feeling on edge. "I haven't been able to sleep in a while. Everytime I try and relax something happens and…and I'm not sure what the hell is going to happen, but I am damn sure that I want this to end"

Henry watched her for a second as if he was gearing up the nerve to ask her something. Giselle tugged her hair again and then finally got tired of the look on his face. "Henry just spit out whatever it is that you want to ask?"

Henry took a deep breath and then asked in a rush. "Will you move in with us. Hook, Mom and me. I think it will make things easier. Please think about it Giselle"

Giselle opened her mouth though what she was going to say she didn't know when her Dad came crashing back into the room eyes alight with some sort of nefarious plan no doubt. Giselle turned her attention to him and tried to pretend that her hands were not shaking.

That look only could mean one of two things. And knowing her luck it was both of them.

They were getting out of here. And something had happened or would happen in the process.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Next Day. The Diner. Axel's Perspective.

Axel was on his break in the diner when he saw her. Or to be more accurate when he had ran into her. He was steadily working his way through a large burger, coffee and chocolate milkshake (years in prision only being fed when Arthur was feeling generous had given him a healthy appreciation for food, plus Granny had a wonderful way of giving him a raw slab of meat for his burger and not judging him whatsoever) when he stood up to go and grab the salt.

Just as he turned he collided with a woman carrying an iced tea and it soaked him to the bone. Too many nights and days in prision being awakened by cold water and the laugh of the guards flashed by and he was about to morph into full wendigo when he saw who it was.

Ah. It was Belle.

He knew who she was of course. Even without Giselle's…err…misgivings any by misgivings he meant—well everything she had told him and the way her lip had curled when she said it. To be honest he had found the hatred quite sexy but he supposed normal people-humans which he was not-probably didn't.

"Sorry" he said curling his fists so his claws didn't pop out. Control was still a dangerous thing for him and it was becoming clearer every second he could feel the ice on his legs. He sat back down before Belle could say anything.

"No, no I'm sorry—it's Axel right?"

She sounded nervous. Well, most of them did anyway. There was a pause where Belle stood there watching him as he carried on eating and then without warning she slid into the booth next to him. Axel blinked his mouth full of raw meat.

"Is Giselle helping Rumple steal my baby?" she asked suddenly and Axel was so shocked that he spat a mouthful of meat on the floor heaving in shock. Giselle had only been gone a day for crying out loud!

"Why would your husband want to steal your baby?" he asked finally. "Didn't you just have your scan-thingy the other day?"

"Yes and I gave Rumple a photo but—but now I think he has the sheers. Zelena told me while the Evil Queen…were you not there?"

"No" Axel said dipping a fry in ketchup. "I don't have time for the Evil Queen or what she uses as propaganda and if I'm being honest with you I don't know enough about Snow White to care if she's being hunted or not. I was busy working. Wendigo's are not affected by the laws of magic and I haven't seen Giselle since she came back from the docks yesterday afternoon"

Belle sighed looking so woebegone that Axel felt pity for her. She was a woman desperately trying to keep her child safe from a potential threat. As someone who had seen his mother desperately try to do the same without showing how much it bothered her he could relate.

"Look don't take this in a bad way but I don't think your on her radar anymore. She's terrified Hook is going to die again, horribly confused about how to handle all her feelings and terrified of going to sleep. She hides it well but she's been on a spiral since the news got out of the Evil Queen never mind the whole going to hell thing. Your safe because I don't think she cares"

Belle sighed again. "You know I get why she doesn't like me" she said finally. "I made some mistakes, I put myself first in my marriage and didn't think about her when I got rid of Rumple. I understand now what it must have been like. But she's…"

"She's bloody stubborn" Axel said and Belle laughed. "I want my son to know that he has a big sister who he can depend on" she said finally. "Will…will you tell her that?"

Axel nodded just as the door opened. It was Giselle. "Tell her yourself then" he said turning back to his lunch. "If you want to put the past behind you then no time like the present."

"She doesn't look well" Belle said finally. "Did you see her since the ship thing with Hook? Henry said she was a little down"

Axel turned around and saw that she was right. Walking the middle way between two father's and numerous magical crisis had taken a toll on his girlfriend who had huge dark circles under her eyes and seemed close to tears. For once she didn't glare at Belle and Axel felt the hairs on the back of his head stand up. He wondered what methods she was taking to avoid her nightmares.

He half stood up as she came towards him but at the last second she tripped over something and half fell into his arms her whole body slumping as a lifetime of worry caught up with her.

She had fainted.

The world around him erupted but Axel hardly had a time to care about the fact that the Evil Queen had gotten her revenge, that Hook was busy watching Emma try to keep herself together, that the Dark One and the Evil Queen were making their moves. All he cared about was the dark haired woman who had collapsed in his arms, that had rescued him, made him feel whole and was now battling her own demons that for the first time were in danger of conquering the incomparable Giselle Jones.

* * *

 **And there it is, let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-Giselle recuperates. Killian has a heart to heart with his daughter. The Evil Queen plays her ace. Giselle sleeps (finally) and a new villain steps out of the shadows-but all is not what it seems. **


	56. Things We Said Today

**Hi, so here is another chapter, this one is a bit longer and as I continue to update this story they will get a bit longer. As stated I am publishing chapters as soon as I have written them in order to end this story as fast as possible.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this little plot bunny.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **And as I have continually said this story will gloss over some actions in Season 6 as we come to a close to focus on the character of Giselle who is very much the main focus of this arc.**

* * *

Paradise Lost 

Chapter 56-Things We Said Today

Giselle recuperates, Killian has a heart to heart with his daughter. The Evil Queen plays her ace. Giselle sleeps (finally) and a new villain steps out of the shadows with devastating and heart-wrenching consequences for the heroes. And all is not what it seems.

* * *

 ** _"Wake me when the shakes are gone and the cold sweats reappear. Call me when It's over and myself has reappeared-To the ones that never left me we've been down this road before"_** **(Song-Sober-Demi Lovato)**

Storybrooke. Hospital. Giselle's Perspective.

Her eyes felt like she had cement coating them. She was struggling to open them and shut off that annoying beeping sound that was going on and on. Good Lord why was that thing beeping. She wanted to move her hand but when she tried she found it so heavy to move that she gave up. It was like she was having an out of body experience and it would have freaked her out if it wasn't for the fact that she couldn't and didn't care about much in the state she was in. Whatever state that was. And before she could say anything or try anything she fell back into the land of sleep.

When she next woke up it was daytime because she could see the sunlight behind her eyelids. This time she woke up and looked around. She was in the hospital in Storybrooke and the incessant beeping was the damn machine she was hooked up too. She had no idea what time had passed, if the Evil Queen had defeated the Charming's. All she could remember was the fact that she had, had a blinding headache and had gone to find Axel or a coffee whichever one she stumbled across first and then the rest of it was just a black void.

There was a pause where she took a deep breath in order to try and force herself to her environment but when she sat up her head gave such a screaming protest that she groaned and laid back upon the pillow.

God she felt sick. Sick and tired and exhausted to her very bone and she looked down at her hands trying to piece together what happened when the door opened and in came her Dad looking exhausted himself and clutching a coffee in his hand. He started when saw that she was awake and then he smiled, the genuine smile that he shared only with her.

"Thank the Gods Gizzy" he said bending down and kissing her on the top of her head and Giselle had a moment where she wondered if this is what her life would have been like if he had raised her. Would he have kissed her on top of her head every night when he had tucked her in and smoothed her hair back as he told stories about what he had seen as a pirate?

So much of her life had been lost hadn't it?

"What happened?" she asked once she had drunk a little bit of water. Her body still felt tired and aching and her Dad smiled a little but she could see the exhaustion and the fear in his eyes and she wondered just what had happened to make him look like that.

"You fainted" he said simply. "Collapsed in the diner straight into Axel's arms and he carried you here. Well ran here as a wolfed out Wendigo and then he ran off again because he had to get all of his frustration post your fainting out but…Whale diagnosed you with exhaustion, dehydration and a number of other things but he said your heart was racing all the time and that while you would be ok you shouldn't do that again" he said all of this very fast as if he was reciting something that Whale said and Giselle sat up this time and managed to do it without the throbbing migraine.

"What did I miss?" Giselle said wincing. "I know that the Evil Queen was going to kill Snow White and Charming but that's about it"

"Well she didn't" her Dad said though his smile was slightly brittle. "But she—well she cursed both of them with some sort of sleeping curse so that neither one of them can be awake when the other one is. Regina's having a nightmare of a time trying to deal with it and to top matters off the Evil Queen has taken Emma and her to another realm with some sort of wish thing that I don't understand. So it's just me and David and…I should be with him but I wanted to come and see you and make sure you were…well…alone and safe"

"Why?" Giselle asked. "Where's Axel?"

"Guarding baby Neal, also he needed to eat something he was half dead on his feet." He looked at her rather appraisingly and Giselle could tell that despite what he was feeling he was impressed with Axel's devotion. She had to grin even though her muscles felt like they several days old. And then the meaning of his words registered.

"Why do you care if I was alone? Didn't father come to see me?"

"Well…I assume he did. Things have been difficult as of late" her Dad replied delicately. Giselle closed her eyes as a wave of dread washed over her. She opened them again and found that she was close to tears. Her Dad reached out with his one good hand and took hers.

"What did he do this time?" she asked flatly though she knew. She knew what it was that he had done. Or more to the point she knew who and what it would involve. God this shit never fucking ended for her did it?

"He magically sped up Belle's pregnancy. She delivered a boy but Emma put a charm on the door and Belle sent him away."

"Oh for fucks sake!" Giselle shouted nearly causing her Dad to fall of the bed. She tried to stand up but when she did she was overcome by such a wave of dizziness that she had to sit back down again and before she could protest her Dad had her back in the bed and was smoothing the sheets down.

"Darling please."

"No" she snapped. "I knew this would happen. He wouldn't hurt his child Dad trust me, after Bae and me this baby was the most important thing in his life. If anyone sped up that pregnancy then it was the Evil Queen. Now he's going to be on a rampage and believe me his love for Belle will only protect her for so long when It's his child. His son…this will be the second—" and then his words caught up with her.

"Hey I have a baby brother? Did Belle name him before she gave him up like he was cold Chinese?"

Her Dad frowned. "Bit below the belt darling even for you. And she did"

Now he looked very on edge. Giselle watched him.

"Belle didn't tell your father and she asked me not to tell you the name" he said in a rush. Giselle raised an eyebrow as rage such as she had only known once (and it had again been Belle who had inspired such anger and hate in her then as well as now) set her blood on fire.

"So help me if you don't tell me his name I will march down this ward until I find her and I will make what you said as the Dark One look like's child's play"

Her Dad watched her for a second and then shrugged as if Belle's ire was less when compared to hers.

"She called him Gideon. After some hero in a book"

Tactfully he didn't bollock her when she rolled her eyes and collapsed back onto her pillows.

"So" he said finally taking a seat next to her. "You want to tell me why you weren't sleeping? You want to tell me why Whale said you weren't drinking or eating much or why Axel found some caffeine pills in your bag that you were taking in order to keep yourself awake?"

There was something in his tone of voice that told her that her Dad knew everything that had been going on and then she remembered that there was a little something…little someone called Henry Mills. She closed her eyes once and then she leaned back against the pillows forcing them open.

"You know?" she said finally. "Henry?"

"Yeah he told me some of what was going on." He said finally. "When Axel came in he was carrying you I was about to call you…I was visiting—well I was visiting someone and then he came in and told me what you had said to him when we were under the sea the other day"

He looked at her as if he was expecting her to start talking. Well she supposed, experience had taught her that there was no point in ignoring him. Her Dad was one of those rare breeds of men who wouldn't go away if a woman ignored him.

"What did he say?" she tried to keep her voice to a casual tone but she found that she could not do it very well. There was a pause and when her Dad spoke again it was in a deceptively calm voice.

"He may have mentioned something about the fact that you said you didn't sleep because you were worried I was going to die again"

Giselle made a noise in the back of her throat that she didn't like the sound of. Finally she looked up though she struggled for a second on what to say.

"I don't sleep anymore" she confessed. "I don't sleep. I just…when we got back from hell I thought that perhaps we would have a normal life. You were alive, the darkness was gone and I knew father would be father but I knew how to deal with that. And Hyde wasn't even a blip on the radar. Hyde was nothing…but now…"

She took a shaky laugh. "I know you. I know you love Emma. I know if push comes to shove especially with Emma destined to die you are going to do all you can to protect her even if it results in your death. I know you, you don't want to go through what you went through with Mil…with mother again and I—I can't do it Dad, I can't not again. And I cannot ask you to leave Emma in the lurch when she needs you and it just goes around and around in my head until it keeps me up at night and the coffee and the occasional pill makes it all better but, I don't wanna lose you again…" And then she was dissolving into sobs, ugly, loud sobs as every emotion she had been dealing with over the last few weeks and probably before that spilled out.

Suddenly she was sobbing without warning her hair covering her hands and it took her a second before her Dad came and sat on the bed pulling her into his arms and rocking her back and forth. She stayed like that in his arms for a long time and only when she felt sleepy again did she pull back. It was warm in his arms and it was comfortable, more comfortable than she had realised during those days when hugs were scare between the two of them. Finally she pulled apart from him wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.

"Sorry" she mumbled. Now that she had stopped showing and expressing all of this pent up emotion she for some unknown and probably stupid reason felt embarrassed by it.

"You got nothing to apologise for Gizzy" her Dad said firmly cupping her face with his hand and forcing her to look him in the eye. "You should have come to me when you started feeling this way. The door was always open I just assumed that you knew that. You didn't have to keep this bottled up"

"Doesn't change anything" she muttered.

"Yes it does." Her Dad said tutting.

"No it doesn't. It's still Emma's life on the line and you and everyone else in this town will still do everything and anything you can to protect her"

She didn't mean for it to come out quite so bitter but it did. Her Dad sighed looking at her for a long time and when he spoke it was with a voice that sounded far away as if he was thinking of events long ago which he had tried to forget.

"Do you know that when you were born, they gave you straight to me. Milah didn't want to hold you in the beginning she was too tired and bleeding and all sorts so they gave you to me. You were tiny, tiniest little thing in the world with just these wisps of black hair. I'd never held a baby before even with two hands and for a second I didn't know how I'd feel. And then you opened your eyes and I was gone. And then months later you were gone, and I tried to tell myself that you were dead, that he would kill you because you were Milah's daughter. But there was still this little bit of hope no matter how much I tried to squash it that you were still out there"

All of this Giselle had heard before in some ways but she listened nonetheless to it again.

"And then I found you. Standing on that deck even before that when Emma told me the Dark One had a daughter. And I said to myself that night when she left me chained to the giant's beanstalk that if I got a chance to see you and you were happy then I would be content with staying in the background and pretending I was a stranger. The point of all of this is that…there is nothing, nothing I value in this world as more important than you. Even Emma. And I cannot promise you I will not die eventually, and I cannot promise you I will not run away from a fight because that is not the man that you have for a Dad…but I can promise you that I will take no more unnecessary risks with my life. I will defend myself and you and Emma but I won't go running towards the danger. I promise you I will do all in my power to make it back to you. And I will be there for you. But you have to meet me halfway. Sleeping is a must, telling me what your father plans to do if it affects us, getting off those pills, eating probably. I need you to do this for me Giselle because if you think that losing me is bad, then I can assure you that the thought of using you is—unbearable"

Giselle nodded and then a thought came to her. It was a risk, a big one when she thought about it but it was a logical step forward. The life she had known as Scarlett Gold, the days after the end of the first curse where she had naively thought she could be Giselle Gold instead of Giselle Jones and even those days in the Dark Castle where she had been Giselle Jones with the father who was the monster in her dreams were gone. She was someone else know. Time to live the life of that other person.

The life she should have led.

"I suppose if I move in you could keep an eye on me" she said finally. Her Dad stilled his entire body locking into place. Giselle didn't look up from the bed too scared to see his expression. "Henry did ask me…twice." She said finally.

"What?" her Dad said in a slightly strangled voice. "You want to come and live with me—with us—with me?" He repeated again as if he needed it saying a second time.

"Look" Giselle said suddenly feeling foolish "I…err…I understand if you don't want me too. I do, I mean it's not like I've made it easy for you. I've been a bitch at times. I didn't mean to hurt you I was a confused kid at the time but, I understand if you don't want me to live with you"

"Do you mean that?" her Dad asked finally his voice strange, a sort of strangled tone as if he was unsure of weather or not this was a real conversation between them. Giselle stared at him for a beat and then shook her head.

"This was pointless" she said trying to keep her voice steady and not show how her Dad's refusal had hurt her but before she could move to stand up her Dad's hand had reached out and grabbed her around the wrist and forced her to look up at her again. His face was filled with something that could only be described as wild. It took Giselle a second to realise what it looked like and then she realised.

Hope.

"Do you mean that?" He replied finally. Giselle nodded once and then a smile broke out on her Dad's face, a wild smile that even years later Giselle could never put the words to it to describe.

Her Dad gave a laugh that was almost wild with joy.

"Do you have a timeframe on when you can move in? I mean do you need help packing? Because we had a spare room, but I didn't want to hope I mean…" and he beamed looking like all of his Christmases had come early. Giselle blinked feeling like she had ran a hundred miles without even running. It seemed like something so important was on the preface of this conversation that she couldn't even think past it.

"Wait" she said holding up her hand and trying to think on what he was saying. "You want me to come and live with you?"

"Do I?" her Dad said in a disbelieving tone and then the next thing she was being pulled into his arms and he was half laughing into her hair with joy and Giselle found that she could not help but smile back when she finally realised that this was her life, her future laid out in front of her.

It was good.

She was good.

The door to the hospital room smashed open then and she looked around to see David, out of breath and shaking. He smiled once at Giselle though it was curt she could see however the genuine warmth behind it and she smiled back. Something was happening and she turned to ask her Dad for explanations only to see him hiss a little bit as he realised that he had clearly forgotten to tell her about something. David dropped something onto a chair and she saw it was her gym bag that was filled with clothes and she smiled once when she saw it.

"Ah" Her Dad said finally looking between the bag and David and then back at her again and trying to find the words. Finally he spoke again.  
"Well…there's some things about your new brother that you don't know about yet"

* * *

Storybrooke. Main Road. Henry's Perspective.

His Mom was alright. His Mom was alright, his other Mom was alright too. Both of them were back. Of course the thing was, was that Robin Hood (or a version of him was back) and that was—well something to worry about for another time. Therefore he decided to focus on his mother, Emma who had been buried in both Hook and her father's embrace for the last ten seconds. Even though he had Regina hugging him from the side he could see Belle and his grandpa out of the corner of his eye before they disappeared probably to go and plot on how to either aid or save their son, whichever his grandfather thought about and God knows with him it could easily be either option.

Henry turned to see Giselle out of the corner of his eyes. Her eyes were fixated on where her brother had once been standing fighting his mother. Her expression was half hidden by her hair but the moonlight shone on it directly and Henry was suddenly very aware that she had not moved since looking at him. Giselle tilted her head to the side and there was something on her face that Henry didn't like.

It was calculation.

In that second Henry could really appreciate that both as Giselle Jones and as Scarlett Gold, Giselle had been raised by the Dark One. There was something in her gaze that made him wonder if his grandpa and Belle helping their son was not who they should be worried about.  
"Giselle" he cried out before he could stop himself and Giselle turned her hair shifting over her shoulder to stare at him and he realise that everyone was now looking at him. Giselle smiled at him her face full of that self-confidence she had gained from years of not being fazed by what people thought of her.

"I'm coming Henry don't worry" she said smiling.

Yeah right, Henry thought to himself. Don't worry. Fat chance.

* * *

 **And there it is, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and there is only five more chapters left of this story! Thank you all who have stuck around for the ride I hope to see you again next time. As this is the only continuing story I have left to update I can say the update should be sooner rather than later.**

 **Next Chapter-Giselle adjusts to her new living situation, Killian has a question to ask Giselle before Emma makes a decision that again sets the two women at odds and Giselle sets out to meet her brother, the one who is the other G. Gold.**


	57. Two G Golds

**Hi, so here is another chapter. I will probably publish this chapter with another one following it immediately perhaps another two as I have been writing on my week off and with all my other stories bar this one finished and four or five chapters left this is the last story I have left to close before I take a couple of weeks off.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Paradise Lost 

Chapter 57-Two G. Golds. 

Giselle adjusts to her new living situation, Killian has a question to ask Giselle before Emma makes a decision that once again opens up conflict between the two women gearing up to a massive confrontation and Giselle sets out to meet her brother the one who is the other G. Gold.

* * *

 ** _"I'm confident in your loyalty to me, I'm confident in your love for me. If you lie to protect me. If you lie just once, if you lie just a little, if you lie because you cannot stand what is happening to me and the people making it happen, if you ever, ever lie…you're finished with me. Do you understand?"_** **(TV. Show. The West Wing-Jed Bartlet. Episode, Bad Moon Rising, 2x19)**

Storybrooke. Emma's House. Killian's Perspective.

He was going to ask David. At some point. But the Prince was admittedly in a mood right now considering he and his wife could no longer be together and Regina while good was apparently not as good at being Evil as her other half had been. So, he had planned to ask David in the same way he had planned to ask Henry (if the boy was in the house—he seemed to be spending time with his girlfriend more often that not) that however left only one person.

It wasn't that he wanted to ask his daughter's permission. He could do what he wanted with his life in the same way that his daughter could do but he had seen her with Belle and he would rather have a life that was peaceful rather than the constant strain between the two women he had seen so far made even worse by the events surrounding Gideon. Giselle had made it very clear whose door she placed the blame for Gideon's darkness and it was not her father.

Anyway he walked up the stairs to Giselle's room one morning after Emma had gone to work and Henry off with Violet. It was a weekend and therefore no school but Giselle had chosen to spend time in the new house painting her room. She had taken one with a window that showed the back of the house and the garden path that led down into the fields. Her bed had been moved in via magic and though she had made it clear that she would sometimes go back to Gold's place whenever this house got too much for her. But he felt like he had won some sort of battle between the two of them. Much like with Regina and Emma his daughter was deciding of her own free will that she wanted to live with him. He could understand the smug superiority Emma had felt when she had gained custody over Henry.

Giselle was up in her room in an old blue long sleeved shirt dress thing (he still didn't understand fashion in this century) and her dark hair was piled in a knot on the top of her head bar her side fridge which was half in her eyes. She had a half paintbrush in her hand, paint on the end and she was currently staring at the walls. She had gone for a nice bright yellow colour with matching pale-ish bedding and someone—no doubt whichever one of the Charming's had been awake had given her a ivy plant. They probably hadn't expected Giselle to twist it around her bed but with her curtains and carpet all in one place and her furniture and bedding were all waiting to be moved in she was very nearly there.

"I want to ask Emma to marry me" he said finally once he saw Giselle was looking at him. She stared at him for a second and then turned back to the yellow wall. "Yeah I figured" she said brushing another spot yellow.

"You did?"

"Yeah I mean we've both moved in haven't we? I kinda figured that everything was heading that way cause this is Emma and we are now living in her house."

"And your…your alright with it?" he asked. He couldn't believe it could be this easy. Giselle turned back to the wall. "If I wasn't believe me you'd know. Look just go and ask her, you look like your walking on eggshells as is its, only gonna be a matter of time before she asks you what the hell is wrong with you and you don't want to ask her to marry you with her mother in the room you wont get past the kneeling part without the town being put on high alert." She dipped her brush in the paint and then continued like he had never asked her.

Killian grinned walking back down the stairs. The last time that Giselle had seen one of her father's get married it had seen the Dark One banished, Belle enemy number one and her holed up in Gold Manner for six weeks trying to see if she could drink herself out of her misery. This time at least it looked like things would be better.

Now he just had to go and ask David.

* * *

The Clock Tower. Midnight. Giselle's Perspective

The sad part was that she didn't even have to use a locater spell to find him. All she had do was think about where someone with magic would go if they were being threatened. It had taken her most of the time that she had taken to paint her new room. Her father had asked Emma to marry him and she had accepted though the lines of worry were back on his face though there were many reasons why that could be. The Charming's were still locked in their own hell and she had not yet spoken to her father in the two weeks since she had moved out but she knew that he and Belle were doing something to stop their son (or in her father's case help him) and she was prepared to sit and wait and see which side the axe fell.

But she was surprised at how easy it was to find him. Gideon. She was amazed her father had not figured it out. All of Regina's energy had been spent on the Charming's and yet she—a woman with no magic and just a basic understanding of how the men in her family worked, had managed to figure out where Gideon was hiding.

Because it was obvious wasn't it? The clock tower was where the town's magic was based and that was where the strongest magic could be found. Couple in the fact that it was isolated and alone it was almost laughable at how easy it was to hide there.

She climbed the stairs looking around at the top and then she saw that it was empty. There was a pause where she stood there and then she sat down tucking her school skirt under her and placing down the package. She was a big sister now after all and she had been looking around for what to get your baby but really angry twenty something brother all at the same time as a gift. Eventually she had decided on food.

Two grilled cheese sandwiches, two pumpkin spice lattes, a bag of popcorn and soda. That should keep the kid going for a while. At least until she could get back for more food.

"I know you're here Gid I can hear you plotting in the shadows. Sit down and have a meal with your big sister"

There was a sudden movement out of the shadows behind a bell and she grinned without looking up as someone sat unceremoniously beside her. She turned and studied her brother. He looked more like her father than Bae had ever done though there were flecks of Belle in her eyes. Giselle smiled at his somewhat distrusting look and then she held up the coffee and the sandwich. Gideon took it looking rather distrustful but there was something about the way he looked at her that made her wonder weather or not he had managed to find anything to eat.

He took a mouthful and then considering the way he chomped it down she decided to offer him hers. He finished both grilled cheeses and then took a swig of coffee and then promptly spat it out again.

"That's disgusting" he said finally. "So sweet"

"Spoilsport" Giselle said as they sat on the steps leading up the clock tower and passing him a can of soda. Once she opened it for him he took a sip and then his whole face lit up like a little kid.

"Are you going to tell me to stop my plan to kill the saviour?" he asked finally. He sounded like such a lost little kid that Giselle wondered weather or not his heart was really in it. But before she could say anything the defiant look was back on his face and she realised that he had clearly geared himself up for this conversation.

"No" she said finally surprising herself. She had thought she could plead the case but now she was looking at him there was something about him that felt…off.

"I wanted to spend time with you. Look I don't know if you know this but…we…we had an older brother once. Baelfire. And…he came into my life when I was a mess, I mean a hard drinking, angry at the world, hating everyone and everything mess. And I needed him, more than I knew I did and he was there. He didn't try and push or fight back or make me confront my issues but his door was always open when I needed it to be. And now he's dead and I didn't realise until after he had died how much I needed him. I don't want you to realise that you needed me but couldn't come and find me because you thought that I was trying to change you. Trust me. I've spent a lifetime loving men in my family who I know will never change"

"You don't mind that I came to kill Emma?"

"I do, but your not the first. I doubt you'll be the last but…but if you wanted to tell me something then you could. And I wouldn't tell anyone"  
Gideon looked at her for a long second and Giselle was under the impression that he was thinking very hard about something. She didn't say anything for a long minute or two before she opened her mouth and asked.

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

Gideon exhaled. "No Giselle" he said finally. Giselle nodded. At the very least he knew her name.

"I also brought you some books" she said turning to her bag. "You know in case you had a second to spare when you weren't plotting. You can leave them here when your done. And do be careful, there mine and I rather like them"

Gideon took a hold of one of the books and looked it over with an interested eye. Like Giselle, like his mother, he could not help but show the same interest in a book that she had done, that Giselle had done.

"Who is this Harry Potter?"

"Read and find out" Giselle said picking up the book at his side. "Her Handsome Hero" she said holding it up by the thumb as if it was a poisonous spider. "Of course that would be Belle's idea. I suppose the hero saves the day and never gives into darkness?"

Gideon nodded. Giselle threw the book into the corner as if it was something she had found in the bottom of a wet bag and then she passed him the selection of books. "Look I'll try and be back tomorrow but if not the day after. I'll be here, you should be able to find me. I trust your magic"

Gideon nodded already thumbing through the book and not really hearing her. Giselle nodded and then turned to walk back down the steps.

"Why don't you want to save my soul like mother?" he asked finally. Giselle laughed before she could stop herself.

"Because I know you my brother. You. Me. Bae. We were Golds cut from the same cloth and raised by the same darkness regardless of age or blood. We are always going to have that darkness inside of us. Better you learn to live with it than you learn to destroy it. Because trust me." She thought then of her father. "That doesn't work. Survival depends for us"

"On what?" Gideon asked.

Giselle thought of her brothers, of Bae and this boy in front of her. Of the way she had been raised and brought up. Of how she had survived curse after curse, Regina, Greg and Tamara, Pan, Zelena, The Snow Queen, The Queen's of Darkness, Emma, Arthur, her Dad, Hades, Hyde and the Evil Queen again. About the line she had walked for so long and the choices she had made and what would happen if anyone knew that she was engaged in conversation with the man who was trying to end the saviour.

"On our luck" she said grimly and then she was gone.

* * *

Storybrooke. One in the Morning. Emma's House. Regina's Perspective.

At some point she was going to have to sit down with her son and whittle out what constituted an emergency because Regina's heart had all but stopped when she had gotten Henry's phone call and now she was being told that it was all because Hook and Emma had, had a fight.

Emma was now sitting in front of the fire looking tired and woebegone but Regina didn't know what to say, yes Hook shouldn't have lied but really what was he going to say? The man was a reformed pirate, it wasn't like Regina was honest about all of the skeletons in her closet. Banishing him for a little thing like not telling her he'd murdered her grandfather who Regina could barely remember when she was finding weak spots in that damn family didn't really register on her radar.

But then again she was different.

Anyhow she had poured herself a glass of rather good wine and had sat down wondering at the irony of wishing Snow White was here with her when the door opened.

It was Giselle, still in her uniform and looking windswept. Probably having been with the wendigo. Regina gave a small sigh of relief, she could go home. She did have a rerun of My Kitchen Rules to watch after all. It was Sunday tomorrow, even the Mayor could have a lie in.

She looked around looking rather guilty. It was a strange look on her Regina thought to herself. Not unlike the look she had, had on her face when Arthur had been skulking around. Clearly she had been expecting Hook to leap out of the shadows. Well…that illusion was soon going to be over.  
"Hey where's Dad?" she asked. "Why the hell are you here no offence and why does Emma look dead inside?"

She dumped her bag on the floor. Emma turned around. Giselle suddenly went very still as she took in the look on Emma's face. Her own expression suddenly became very closed off. Regina closed her eyes and waited for the storm to come. If there were two women she would not want to watch have a stubborn contest it was Giselle Jones and Emma Swan.

"Where is my Dad?" Giselle repeated.

Regina sighed again as Emma opened her mouth. There went her morning in.

She was going to seriously have to talk to Henry about the concept of an emergency.

* * *

 **So there is the chapter, I hope you all enjoy. Next chapter will be longer and more angsty but I hope I have managed to draw the tension tighter. Also I can relieve that in the next chapter there will be a point of view a long time coming that I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Next Chapter-In which both Giselle and Emma make discoveries leading to the biggest fight Storybrooke has ever seen. With the eve of the Final Battle and the Wedding of the Century approaching words are said that will forever change the course of the lives involved.**


	58. Grandmothers

**Hi, so here is another chapter this one was posted with the earlier one and is solely based on the Episode Mother's Little Helper in Season 6.**

 **A few things I have to say in this chapter-if you want to skip my rant then by all means please do but if you like certain characters in this story and in OUAT mainly Emma and Snow then you might want to read this.**

 **Firstly while I adore Emma and tolerate Snow White (I did love her in Season 1 thought but she got a bit too good for my taste certainly Season 4 onwards) I had to say I was horrified by this episode. The scenes in which they are with Rumple and Belle in my opinion were terrible. Snow White calling the murder of Rumple and Belle's child a mother daughter bonding thing was to me horrible and sickening. Emma's attitude towards Gideon and Gold and Belle made me scream fraud especially after Season 5. I thought that this episode did nothing for character development but it did make me get angry all over again while writing this chapter and again this is an episode I do struggle to re-watch because of the way it makes me feel.**

 **Therefore I thought it only natural that Giselle who was close to Bae and wants a relationship with Gideon would react to that. It also brings her back to the central crux of this story, is she on Killian's side or Gold's? Giselle has walked a narrow line between both of them for years and she wants to continue to do so but this story and the resulting fight between Emma and Giselle ensures Storybrooke is again divided and I believe that characters such as Leroy and Granny and the others who have been with Snow since the start of OUAT would be horrified by the things she said. Contentious mother daughter relationships have been a highlight of this story for me and to have Giselle work with Belle and accept Belle is of course their relationship coming full circle.**

 **So If you forgiven an author's long justification, If you are Team Emma or Team Snow all the way you may want to wait until the next chapter. I don't wish to offend anyone by my writing but I felt like this episode needed it's own chapter. We have three more chapters left of this story and then it concludes with a happy ending for all. It just remains to be seen how much drama I can fit in between here and there.**

 **Again a massive thank you to all of you. Your reviews and your kind words and the fact that nearly sixty chapters in you are still reading this story is wonderful and a continued source of inspiration. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and I will endeavour to complete and update soon with the reminder of this story.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing Is mine just this piece of fiction and the character that is Giselle Jones.**

* * *

Paradise Lost 

Chapter 58-Grandmothers. 

In which both Giselle and Emma make discoveries leading to the biggest fight Storybrooke has ever seen. With the eve of the Final Battle and the Wedding of the Century approaching words are said that will forever change the course of the lives involved.

* * *

 ** _"Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of War"_** **(Julius Ceaser-William Shakespeare)**

Storybrooke. Gold's Shop. Giselle's Perspective.

Her parting with her father a little over two weeks ago had been strangely painful. They had both been in shock about the events that had happened and Giselle had thought it best that she keep her distance but now things had changed. Gideon had been steadily working his way through the food and the books she had given him. He had been mildly amused by Harry Potter and mocked the magic but Giselle noticed that didn't stop him reading the books. In fact they spent most afternoons reading books in quiet silence. For a man who was supposed to be plotting to kill someone he didn't do a big job but then she supposed she didn't know exactly what he was doing with her father at the time. Had she known…then the situation would have been…quite different.

But she received the message from her father asking her to come to the shop and despite it meaning she take the afternoon off she did. When she opened the door it was too the most blazing row that she had ever heard. She had come in the back way so nobody could hear her but she heard enough to know what Emma and Snow White were talking about when she heard it.

"And I'd be happy to help, we've been looking for some mother daughter bonding"

Giselle nearly ran into the wall. Fury, such as she had never known coursed through her and it nearly knocked her for six. She had thought she had known fury when she had seen Belle the first time after the incident with her father's dagger. She had thought she had known what that powerful, dark anger was then but that was nothing compared to what she was feeling now. It was so hot, so corrosive inside of her she wondered weather or not she would be able to speak.

Snow White. Snow White. The woman who sang to birds and who had bitched about hope until everyone in this town was sick of it. Who had lied as much as the next person in this town and had judged so many people it was like she had her own TV show was stood there talking in her light and airy voice about her baby brother as if killing him was the same as pamper session.

The dislike that Giselle had often felt for the woman burned in a hatred and it wasn't hard to see why Regina had spent the majority of her life trying to kill this woman. Giselle wanted to wrap her hands around her neck and not let go now.

She stepped out from beneath the curtain.

Emma started as if she had been surprised to see her there. She took one look at the white look on Giselle's face and looked away as if she was struggling to look her in the eye. Giselle took a moment to try and gain her self control back but before she could she felt someone touch her arm.

It was Belle.

For a second the two of them stared at each other and Giselle realised that Belle must be as angry as she was. It created something between them, a love and sense of fierce protection for Gideon and a desire to be on the same page in a way it had never done so for her father. For the first time in their lives they were allies.

Fuck.

"What's happened" she asked once she could breathe again.

"Gideon banished Hook to another realm" Emma said in a rush. Giselle swore. She had spent all week with the kid and he had not said anything. She was going to kill the little shit. But she thought to herself. It still didn't explain why he was happiest when he was reading books with her. If he had wanted her to be gone he would have done so.

His heart wasn't in it.

His heart wasn't in it.

And then it clicked.

Gideon's heart wasn't in it, because he didn't have his heart!

This Black Fairy person was going to pay.

And then she heard it.

"She's my mother"

Wait what now?

"You never mentioned that one?" she said cutting across Snow White who shot her an annoyed look. Giselle didn't dignify the woman with a glance in her general direction. Cow.

"Well I wanted you to have a somewhat normal childhood. Bringing up her is one way to destroy that goal. Besides she's banished to another realm. I've not thought about her in…years…"

"If she's a fairy then shouldn't Blue know?" Snow White asked. Giselle didn't miss the look shared between her father and Belle and had to bit her lip on her grin. So much for the moralistic unmovable Belle. They had the blue fairy stashed away somewhere. God it was so easy to read these people.

"Go find her then" she snapped. "Or better yet considering you lot couldn't find your head from your arse I will go and find her but don't worry as usual you can take all the credit for the miraculous save of the Dark One's son and the bringing back of peacetime. You can write your husband a note."

Snow White gazed at her before her words took effect and she glared. Belle grinned but hid it very well. Giselle couldn't help herself. She grinned back too.

She stormed up to the clock tower as soon as she hit the door.

* * *

"What the hell?" she shouted. Gideon looked up from where he was steadily working his way through the Order of the Phoenix and Giselle saw him look surprised before he took in her expression and the look of innocence was gone.

"If this is about your father then I am going to get him back. Once the saviour has kept up her end of the deal"

Giselle shook her head. "I have been going out of my mind with worry about him for the three or four days and don't even bother to tell me that he's alive? I mean seriously? That was all you had to do Gid. I wasn't going to push you, Emma would have found him eventually. I just wanted to know that he was alive"

Gideon paused for a second looking at her and then Giselle decided to ask him. "Look" she said finally running a hand through her hair. "We know…well your parents know about the Black Fairy so will everyone else by the time that Snow White's done…does she have your heart? Is that why your not moving onwards with this plan?"

Giselle had one second to take in the look of surprise on her brother's face meaning that she had hit the nail on the head. She had one more second to reign supreme in her triumph and then there was the sound of a door opening and footsteps coming up the stairs right to them. Gideon turned to her his face filled with some kind of emotion that if she had stayed there longer Giselle would have been able to name. As it happened her brother waved one longer finger in her direction and before she could so much as tell him he wasn't going to get rid of her that easily she found herself in school uniform in the middle of the forest four miles outside the town on the edge of the border.

Now she was really pissed.

* * *

Storybrooke. Gold's Mansion. Belle's Perspective.

Belle was honestly beginning to despair that there was any hope. They were out of allies and she was honestly unsure about weather or not she wanted to go down the route her husband had carved out for himself and the line between her own morals and his that her stepdaughter had clearly been able to walk without so much as a lost nights sleep.

Nobody wanted to believe that Gideon could change. When Emma had been evil they had moved heaven and earth for her but for her son…it made her teeth on edge and she had longed to throw something even as she had taken to pacing the room. Emma had condemned her son as evil and a part of Belle wanted to point out that Gideon had not ripped out a child's heart but she didn't think that mudslinging was effective right now.

But the truce was over. Emma and Snow would do what they could and she was going to do what she could. She was a mother too and she was going to fight for her child and god help either one of those 'heroes' if they got in her way.

The door opened and everyone looked around as if was slammed shut. It was Giselle. She was covered in mud and she looked furious but she was alive.

"Did you find him?" she asked Emma shortly. "Dad?"

"Yes I have the spell but listen about your bro—" Emma began but Giselle cut across her in the tone that Belle had heard many times. It was actually quite amusing when it was directed at someone else.

"Good get out"

Emma spluttered in shock. Snow White looked appalled. Her husband just looked amused and Belle made a mental note to never again question her step-daughter's love for her father again.

"And don't think I will be back in that house anytime soon" Giselle said her teeth showing as she stared almost murderously at Emma and Snow. "I don't want to be near you two tonight. I'll be at Axel and you can tell Dad that when you decided to forgive him for your over-acting again"

Her whole body was trembling and now her husband was looking worried. Giselle had a temper Belle knew intimately but she had never looked so raw or out of control. Well she had once she reminded herself. She had looked like that once before and Belle being on the other end of it had not found it very appealing.

"Your staying?" Snow White said looking between Rumple and Giselle. Giselle shot her a look that would have felled a lesser man or woman.

"The fact that you don't know why is one of the reasons that I cannot be around either one of you tonight. Door's behind you"

"Your on their side?" Emma asked finally as she moved towards the door. Giselle turned to stare at her and then shrugged. She turned to look at Belle and the expression on her face was almost fond. "We both said it didn't we?" She said with an amused expression.

"In Camelot. We both said it. One day we might be on the same side"

Belle stared at her for a second before the conversation came flooding back to her. They had both made mistakes and they had both gotten mud on their hands. In hindsight there was a lot of things with Giselle that she could have done differently. And there was a lot of things in her marriage that she could have done differently as well. She grinned.

Emma and Snow left and Rumple was still starting between the two of them as if he couldn't comprehend how the pair of them had gone from disliking each other to smiling at each other like they were old friends. Belle smiled again as Giselle touched her on the arm looking at both of them.

"There's something I think I ought to tell you before I go meet Axel" she said finally.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Clock Tower. Emma's Perspective.

She wanted to go home and cry. She wanted Hook but how she was going to tell Killian about the look she had seen in his daughter's eyes right now. She wasn't sure how to explain it. Emma had done nothing wrong but there was something in the way that Giselle had looked at her that made her feel ashamed and she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Right now she was climbing the steps of the clock tower her mother panting behind her and she tried to think about her suspicions. Giselle had, had no reason to look at her like that about someone she hardly knew unless…unless she had known him. She had thought that there was someone in the clock tower when she had gone to see Gideon Gold before but now there was a nagging thought that perhaps she had not imagined it.

And Giselle had loved Bae.

She stood around the small space Gideon had called home. He wasn't there. She wasn't surprised by that but she started to look around dropping to her knees and shifting through the rubble.

"Emma" her mother said finally once she had reached the top. "What are you looking for? Shouldn't you be worried about getting Hook back?"

But then Emma had seen it. It was thrown to one corner as if it had been hastily hidden and she looked around and saw it. The book on the floor was old and a hardback and as she picked it up she saw the faded lettering.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?" her mother said in a confused tone.

"Not like Gideon to read this. Not what you would call Dark One material?"

"No" Emma said flipping through the pages until she came to the first one. "But it is big sister material"

She showed her mother the first page. There written in a hand that was childish and clearly something done in the first curse was…

"Property of Scarlett. M. Gold." Her mother read out. Emma nodded. She had been right. Giselle had known where Gideon was all along.  
And then suddenly she was furious.

* * *

Storybrooke. Granny's Diner. Axel's Perspective.

Giselle stabbed moodily at her pasta. Axel watched her for a second and then decided to ask the question. "So did you hit your brother for taking away your hooked father yet?" He had known from the beginning. Giselle had needed someone to tell and he knew her too well by now. She was furious about something and he had managed to coax out the story from her though he guessed that there were things he was missing.

"No" she said finally. "It's not that…it's…"

Whatever it was he never found out because the door slammed open to the diner and he turned to see Emma Swan looking furious. Giselle threw down her fork and Axel suddenly knew the quite night he had planned was going to shit before his eyes. Emma came right over to their table and slammed down a book nearly making him inhale his pizza slice. It was an old battered book by someone called Harry Potter. Giselle leaned back in her chair with an expression of complete disinterest.

"How long were you helping your brother?" Emma said. Half of the diner was leaning into this conversation now. Giselle stood up. This was a great deal more effective he thought. She looked frightening now. Her whole body was standing out as if someone had burned her skin on fire.

"I didn't know about Dad" she said. "But I didn't want him dead. You see funny things happen to my brother's whenever your involved Emma. Bae died because of your stupidity. I didn't want a repeat"

The diner went dead silent. Emma looked as if she had been slapped. Axel was suddenly wondering if he could disappear by force of will.

"You bitch" Emma said finally. "I loved him"

Giselle gave a cold high laugh. Axel closed his eyes in horror and opened them again watching…waiting.

"You never loved him. You had your eyes on Hook the second you saw him and you dragged both of them along for the fun of it. I saw what you were capable of. You did it to both of them made them both feel special only to tear them down at the last second. Poor orphaned Emma Swan needed special treatment. Well I am sick of it and after what you said to Belle today. Good God Emma you'd disgust Bae if he could see you. You and the limpid Princess disgust me"

Emma snarled but Giselle carried on.

"You said that killing my baby brother was a mother and daughter bonding activity. You stood there, the pair of you mothers who have dragged us all to the ends of the earth and back for your children and told another mother that killing her child was sport. Snow White the great defender of hope is nothing more than a judgemental liar and you are a hypocrite. Fraud doesn't look good on either one of you, you know. In fact it's rather sickening. And you wont find anyone here who doesn't agree"

Axel thought she might have a point. The whole diner had gone dead. This was the stuff that was going to be gossip for years but he noticed Leroy and Granny were both shocked and his wendigo senses plus the way their eyes all seemed to flicker every few seconds to Snow White were willing to bet that they were not just agog at the stuff Giselle was saying. He sighed again looking down at his plate and wondering when this was going to end. His claws were beginning to form and he doubted Emma wanted all her hair gone if this wedding thing did go ahead.

"You" Emma said finally. "Are a spoilt brat who has been indulged at ever whim by a man who should have killed you because that was the kind of man he was. I don't know if your stupid when it comes to him or deluded but you are. All I know is that you are so stupid sometimes I wonder what on earth it is that Killian sees in you, why he still wants you around"

Giselle laughed softly. "As I wonder the same about you" she said. "If you'd have asked me I would have told you that the Black Fairy has Gideon's heart. So that would have been the second kid that you would have nearly killed…oh wait, you did give your son's thirteen year old girlfriend her heart back did you?"

"Depends? Did you screw the married man? Or does your wendigo boyfriend know that you were gagging for Arthur"

Axel stood up his claws out. Not the teeth, he thought to himself. Please not the teeth. He cracked his neck to one side trying to stop his teeth coming out and then finally when he had his instincts under control he opened his eyes.

Judging by the hushed gasp he was going to go with the fact that they had changed colour due to anger.

"I knew" he said finally. "I knew that he forced himself on her. I know that he kissed her without her permission and that she was so alone she thought she wanted it until Regina told her she was worth more. You see everyone was a bit too busy cleaning up your mess to notice"

There was a deathly silence. Nobody seemed to breathe. Emma gazed at him. Giselle reached out and touched his cheek with her knuckles and Axel turned to her letting the feel of her warm, soft skin against his face trying to calm down.

"You are going to get Dad back?" Giselle said not looking away from him. Emma nodded. Giselle saw it out of the corner of her eye and then turned to pick up her jacket.

"Then I assume you can tell him the reason why I wont be coming to your wedding"

Axel's eyebrows shot to the top of his head. Snow White let her arms fall to her side, Leroy and Granny both dropped their jaw. It was hard to tell whose side the town was on. Snow White and Emma had not earned themselves any favours by the comments made to Belle and Giselle had not earned herself any favours helping Gideon. It was hard to know but if Axel had to make a guess based on the feelings he was experiencing around him he was going to bet that half of them were on Giselle's side and half of them on Emma's. Giselle had been loyal to her parent for a long time. Regardless of what the Dark One had done people still respected that. Loyalty was something that they could understand.

It was perfectly simple concept for a perfectly simple town. And as Scarlett Gold these people had memories of Giselle that were good.

Emma however didn't blink. There was no movement for error in each other's eyes and the wounds that they had both inflicted on each other that would not heal overnight.

"Alright then" she said finally standing up. "If he wants you there I cannot stop him of course. But I think we both know where we stand."

"That I do" Giselle said softly. And then she was gone out the door with her head held high. Axel tried to move her and then looked down when he realised he couldn't move. His claws had gone through the table.

He took a deep breath waiting until the things retracted and he became a human again and then he turned and walked out of the dinner. He stopped at the counter and pressed some bills into Granny's hand. She took them with a small smile and a pat on the hand that Axel took to mean that they were welcome for their custom anytime soon and then he was out the door.

Giselle was leaning against the wall her eyes closed and her hair blowing in her face. The small pile of vomit at her feet told Axel what had became of her pasta. He leaned against the wall next to her.

"I don't want to say I told you so but I did tell you that this thing was going to spiral out of control. And now half of the town knows your personal shit"

"I should have told you a lot of it I know…"

"I had eyes you know" Axel said. "And I was the only person who remembered what happened in Camelot when you all came back. I knew what had happened. You weren't the first he tried it on with."

Giselle nodded leaning her head on his shoulder.

"She pissed me off so bad today" she said finally. "She just…Snow White just…he's my brother Axel and he didn't even want to do what he's doing. I buried one brother I just…I just cannot do it again. I don't know why she would want that. I don't understand how they can make light of it. They didn't even know that what they had said today was wrong"

Axel nodded, shushing her and reaching out so he could tuck her in his arms. Giselle breathed into his shirt for a second. Her shoulders were still trembling.

"Come on" Axel said as they walked down the street. "If anything else you can show me how to figure out how the favourite things on Netflix works. At least there's some of your stuff at mine. You don't have to worry about clothes. If I died because either one of your father's caught me creeping around your room neither one of my deceased brother's would let me hear the end of it. I'd hear about it for the rest of eternity"

Giselle laughed wiping her eyes and Axel took that as a win. He might not know how they were going to get past this, what was going to happen at the wedding or even if there was going to be one and he didn't know how the fight between Giselle's grandmother and her brother and Emma was going to end but he did know that he had made Giselle smile and that was worth it's weight in gold.

* * *

 **And there we go, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will try and update as soon as I can . **

**Next Chapter-The wedding of the century is upon us but the town is awash with gossip. Regina and Killian attempt to play peacemakers even though their opinions differ a bit, Emma and Giselle consider the sides they are on and the words that they have said as an unbiased person tries to give them both advice. The Final Battle is approaching. The town Is full of song and Giselle tries to be at peace as she awaits what's coming. **


	59. Giselle's Theme

**Hi, so here is another chapter, this one is perhaps my favourite. It showcases the wedding and the final curse and deals with a lot of emotion either way as well as the relationship between Emma and Giselle. As I have said in the previous chapter there are reasons why the resident of Storybrooke feel the way they do after the row so I hope that clears it up.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine but this chapter.**

 **Also if anyone wants to know about Giselle's dress it's the same yellow dress that Meghan Markle now the Duchess of Sussex wore. Just a bit of trivia.**

 **Please Read and Review and the final two chapters of this story will be up soon.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 59-Giselle's Theme

The wedding of the century is upon us but the town is awash with gossip. Regina and Killian are both trying to play peacemakers even though their opinions differ a bit. Emma and Giselle consider the sides they are on and the words that they have said as an unbiased person tries to give them both advice. The Final Battle is approaching. The town is full of song and Giselle tries to be at peace with what is coming.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier. I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist, like it doesn't exist. I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night, feel my tears as they dry. I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier."_** **(Song-Sia-Chandelier ) **

Storybrooke. Day Before the Wedding. Granny's Diner. Axel's Perspective.

Axel was not afraid of any whispers in the two days after the whole fight with Emma Swan that his girlfriend had had in a public setting. He had been with Giselle the two days, the two of them locked within their domesticated haven but by the second day food and more importantly coffee was getting low and so was his bosses sympathy.

But he was not afraid. Being a wendigo came with the whispers in dark corners territory and after he had lost all of his family and spent a long time entombed in a cage he was rather at peace with the idiots of the world. Anyway he was in dire need of caffeine and he only grinned when the hush surrounded him—a little bit more than usual, when he walked into the place. But he didn't care. The online courses he was taking for pre-law meant that he had an essay to do and he was tired and he couldn't work at his apartment. Giselle was quiet whenever she saw him working and always able to take over when the typing and other computer things got too much but sometimes she would walk around in one of his old shirts when she had load of meagre laundry in his wash and that was not good for his concentration or his health.

And that was another thing he had to pick up at the drug store.

God he hoped he didn't run into either one of her father's when he had to pick up condoms. Axel was good but a pirate and the Dark One were a bit outside his reach.

Granny got him his usual and he noted Giselle's sweet contraption with a smile. Leroy was munching his way through a large bacon sandwich and he looked up when three slices of warm banana loaf were put in front of him complete with salted butter. Granny bustled off leaving him to look around and wonder what the hell he was supposed to do with Giselle's favourite comfort food in the world and her coffee.

"That's her way of not taking sides but letting Giselle know she's welcome" Leroy said over a mouthful of bacon. Axel looked at him.

"What?" he asked finally once Leroy had finished and was now moving to polish his eggs. He rolled his eyes. "Look the whole town's agog with what happened" the shorter man said. "But we don't all blindly follow the Charming's drum. Yes we support them but nobody was very impressed by Snow's comment on mother-daughter bonding and killing. Everyone knows the terror Emma inspired and nobody thinks a seventeen year old like Giselle would willingly be with a married man. I've got memories of that girl no matter how false they might be of when she was a cute little child and I want to keep it that way. A lot of mud was thrown in here you know?"

Axel didn't know but didn't want to say so when the man was clearly on a roll. Speaking of rolls he picked his bread back up and dunk it in his coffee. Axel resisted the urge to gag with incredible difficulty.

"She did love Bae though" he said finally. "Emma. She loved Henry's father. Might wanna tell Giselle that"

"And where do you stand?" Axel said leaning against the counter. Leroy shrugged. "I stand on wherever peace is gonna last" he said finally. "I like Giselle I do, I like Emma. Both of them are complicated women with complicated pasts. They both said somethings that were true and hurtful the other night. Giselle might have had the right of it but that doesn't mean she's always right. Same with Emma" He sent Axel a look. "You get me?"

Truthfully Axel didn't but he was already running late so he nodded. Leroy wasn't so bad. The man nodded once as if he could read Axel's thoughts and then turned back to his breakfast. "You know" Leroy said finally as the door opened behind them. "I think you and Giselle should come to the wedding. Wont be the same for Captain Hook if his daughter is not there. Maybe you could talk to your 'Woman' and get her to call a truce"

"Not bloody likely" Axel muttered. Leroy nodded. "I talked to David before you came in" he said turning back to his breakfast. "Apparently Emma, deep down feels the same way." He sighed. "Like cats fighting in the basket" he said.

Axel decided that was his time to leave. He didn't have a clue what was going on but he took the bread thinking Giselle could down it and was planning to use his speed to get back to the apartment and drop it off before he went to work. By the time he had left it by the door, knocked once and ran off again he was out by Main Street and he only stopped his regular walk when he heard someone call his name.

He sighed once because he knew who that was. He turned to see Captain Hook stalking down the street towards him.

"What the hell?" The hooked man said to him as they stopped on the street. Axel shrugged. He didn't need to be a mind reader to know what the hell he was talking about.

"I go away for two days and come back to find the Blue Fairy in a coma, the Black Fairy planning a 'Final Battle', Gold and me on the same side, Belle and my daughter on the same side and Emma and my daughter brawling in a public place and then to cap matters off I'm told my daughter doesn't want to come to my wedding and you nearly rip a table off the wall? Do you wanna tell me what the hell happened?"

"Did you ask Elle?" Axel said taking a gulp of coffee and wishing he'd had the foresight to slip something stronger into it.

"I knocked on the door and I tried using the phone thing-she told me to fuck off. In so many words"

Axel sighed. "Did Emma tell you what happened?" He asked wondering what kind of garbled information he had received. Hook shrugged a little.

"I know she was helping Gideon. And I know some things might have been said"

"Firstly" Axel said gritting his teeth. Damn, his control had been so good since the other night as well. "She was not helping Gideon unless you count feeding her little brother. She wasn't trying to help him kill Emma but she figured out before anyone that he didn't want to his, their grandmother-the Black Fairy has Gideon's heart. And damn lucky she did figure it out because otherwise she'd have buried another brother and I think we both know how well that would have turned out. Secondly…" he continued loudly when Hook showed every sign of interrupting.

"Snow White, the sainted Snow White, the amazingly good and pure Snow White barged into Belle and Gold's shop your fiancé, in tow and made a joke or a comment or whatever about how killing their baby—because to them he is still a baby—would be her idea of mother daughter bonding. Now think back to everything this town has gone through because of love for the Charming's and their goodness and then tell me that comment wouldn't have knocked you for six. Giselle has been to hell, to Camelot, groped by an older man—which I would like to say your fiancé announced to the entire town—buried one brother, been lied to constantly and forced to choose sides more than once. That comment was sickening to the whole town but nobody but that family seem to get it. She's had enough and let's face it, it's not like you've been around when she's needed you. Because she damn well needed you when she was sleep deprived and when you choose to stay in hell and when you let her be attacked by Arthur because Emma was more important. I will make no apologises for picking up the pieces of the girl you and that family keep stomping on"

And with that he turned his back on Hook and walked down the street before he turned and yelled over his shoulder the words he had wanted to say for a long time came out.

"You have to consider the fact that she was better off being his daughter rather than being yours"

And then he was gone his hands shaking, his teeth bared and the need for a hug from his own father so strong that he felt like he was going to cry.

* * *

Storybrooke. Day of the Wedding. Emma's House. Zelena's Perspective.

Regina was trying to talk to Emma about Giselle Jones. Why Zelena didn't know but she was. Giselle Jones seemed to have made her stance clear and Zelena couldn't blame her. She was wicked, Regina was at times Evil, Emma could be dark.

Snow White might be something else entirely.

And if it had been Robyn that she had said that about well…

She didn't need magic to kill.

The night after she had heard about the row she had gone to Belle bottle of wine in tow and when the woman had broke down sobbing Zelena had patted her on the back and told her it was going to be alright.

(She wasn't that compassionate yet)

Right now Emma was waiting on her mother to go and find her wedding dress and Regina was talking to Emma.

"I told Killian" Emma said. "If he wants Giselle to come to the wedding he can invite her. But I don't see how we can move past this. She said some hurtful things to me Regina."

"You weren't exactly the Queen of restraint" Regina said. "Look Emma I get it, she hurt you when she said you didn't love Neal I do, but you told the town about Arthur in front of the man that Arthur had imprisoned. Do you know how dangerous it is to piss of a wendigo? He could have killed you, hell he could have killed Giselle if he didn't take that information well. Your bloody lucky he didn't. And I know Giselle, I know what a mess she was back then. Arthur was as good as grooming her to be his mistress and she had nobody to turn too and she thought that was all she was worth. Throwing it in her face like she was a slut that wanted it is not fair to her or any other girl who has been in her position and trust me in this town there's bound to be more than one." Her sister sniffed suddenly and Zelena knew what she was thinking about.

"And that's before you get into what your mother said to Belle." Zelena supplied helpfully. Emma did look discomforted at that.

"Look I know" she said running a hand through her hair. "I know that was a bad thing to say believe me but she was angry for me"

"Doesn't change Giselle's point" Zelena said twisting her red hair around her finger and ignoring Regina's look. "This town's been through hell and back for you and your family, supported you when you all thought another person still had hope, all she did was the same and you called her a bitch for it. And no mother in this town is gonna support yours over that mother-daughter comment"

Regina nodded. "Look she's a scared seventeen year old kid"

"Regina, Giselle has never been scared in her life!" Emma cried.

"Oh she has" Regina said with supreme satisfaction. "She just hides it well. Arthur was a prime example, when the darkness was running around this town, when Gold was gone, when he was dead, when Hook decided to stay in the Underworld. Probably when your parents imprisoned her father and didn't care about the sacking of the Dark Castle and she had to flee her home. She hides it well because that's her DNA much like Hook but Emma don't doubt for a second that she's not a child scared out of her wits sometimes. I think her worst fear is losing her family. Hook nearly killed her. Gold's been taking bits out of her for years, Neal was her constant even when she didn't like him and now she's got a chance to be for Gideon what he was for her—a non judgemental older sibling."

"And she figured out his heart wasn't in it" Zelena supplied. "You'd have killed another innocent if she hadn't and then we would have had to deal with Gold on the rampage like he was with his first son and your mother going around pretending she was innocent in it all."

"I'm not defending my mother's words" Emma hissed. "I'm a Mom too you know. It's just she…I don't know. I didn't expect Giselle to disinvite herself that's all. Do you know what it was like telling Killian all that"

Regina shared a dark look with her sister. Zelena shrugged and then spoke.

"You could talk to her. You went into that row angry and she was already angry, the wendigo could probably deserve an apology too, you probably forced him to remember a lot of shit with that Arthur comment not that he already knew"

She looked up at the surprised glances and shrugged.

"Wendigo's retain information differently. He probably had all the memories of Camelot and didn't come forwards because he wanted to stay off Arthur's radar. You cannot blame him. He did see his family murdered in front of him. Giselle's the only good thing he's got probably. Regina's right, never mind him killing her your lucky he stuck his claws in the table and not in your throat. There's a reason why there considered dangerous even if Axel isn't anymore"

Emma leaned her head against the chair looking tired.

Zelena could understand the feeling and she didn't have a wedding to plan. She had been walking all day. Ugh. Life without magic sometimes was hardly worth living.

The door opened and Snow White came in with the dress and Zelena decided to go back to planning in her head which dress would look better on her.

* * *

Storybrooke. Day of the Wedding. The Rabbit Hole. Giselle's Perspective.

It was the first time she had ventured out in days and she was here in the smoky but quiet rooms of the Rabbit Hole wondering how much bartering she would have to do to convince Cyrus one of the bartenders who had come over from the Land of Untold Stories with his wife Alice and his friend Anastasia to give her a vodka.

She didn't have to ask. Will Scarlett himself gave her a vodka tonic the second she sat down. He winked at her and then went to join a blonde woman at the bar who he was trying to convince that Sex on the Beach was a cocktail—'Though if you wanted to Ana it could always be something else'.

She took a gulp and ran a hand through her hair.

She had been so angry.

The door opened and prayed it wasn't her Dad. She had not spoken to him since he had gotten back and she was trying to keep it that way. What was she going to say? Finally they had gotten things back on track and then one comment from Snow White had destroyed it all. And the thing was Emma had never been the one she had, had a problem with.

But Emma had known how much she had loved Bae. She had known how much losing her father the first time in the Underworld had destroyed her and still they had said all those things. Emma might not have known she was in the room at the time but she had damn well known that someone would tell her about the row and she had been so angry. And her anger had felt justified. Some of it still did. And she was now not going to her father's wedding and she was planning a lunch with Belle. If you'd have asked her two weeks ago if this was her life she would have laughed.

Thank God for Axel.

A man sat next to her and she turned to see Archie. Frequenting bars at lunchtime was not something she thought Doctor Hopper capable off.

"I don't want to talk" she said moodily. Archie Hopper nodded accepting the lemonade Will passed him.

"I thought as much. And I didn't follow you by the way. I do rounds with all of the people from the Land of Untold Stories that don't get who I am. But I thought you might want to have a conversation. I am a very good listener"

Giselle shook her head.

"My life is a mess" she said finally.

"Giselle" Archie said finally. "Most members of Storybrooke have at some point or another come to see me. You never did. Why?"

Giselle shrugged. Why hadn't she? Her life had been a walking definition of a textbook for Archie.

"I'm used to handling things on my own" she said finally. "This is nothing."

"You said you weren't coming to Hook and Emma's wedding" Archie pointed out. "That's not nothing"

"What was I supposed to do?" she asked turning to him. "What? Let them kill my brother? Tell me Archie a way to do this, to walk the line between two people who hate each other who are constantly divided. Tell me? I love both of them. I tried so hard to be made at my father when I found out the lies he had told, I tried so hard not to love Hook but I did. I wanted to be so mad and outraged and then when I thought we could all live together when Elsa came they both tried to kill each other and then the line was back. And when I needed Hook he was with Emma trying to cure her of the darkness and then he was dark and then he was dead. And then father was trying to get Belle back and now there both on opposite sides again. One of them is on top and then another and then on and on the circle spins. And unlike some people I cannot take a side. I love both of them. They are both my father's. I'm fucked either way"

Archie hummed. "And the other night?"

"You tell me that comment was something to brush off?" Giselle asked finally. "It was my brother. _My brother_. And they regarded him as a villain when both Snow and Emma have been villains in the past. Snow White sent a child into darkness for her daughter, Emma has dragged us to Neverland for Henry. We fought Zelena for baby Neal. We fought darkness so that their children could be safe but the second it is someone else's child they don't want to know. Some fucking heroes"

She took another gulp of vodka slamming her glass back on the table. It shattered and shards of glass and vodka and tonic went everywhere. She swore as the glass pierced her skin and the blood oozed out of the cut. Archie stood up reaching for his handkerchief and Giselle watched him as he bound up the cut.

"Let me take you to the ER. Giselle your bleeding quite badly I think your gonna need some stiches." He said standing up. Giselle nodded because that was quite a lot of blood and she stood up but her foot caught on the rungs of the barstool and she fell into him. Archie hugged her Giselle couldn't find it in her to pull away. She forced herself to eventually as Archie opened the door to her.

"Giselle why don't you book an appointment and let's talk. It doesn't have to be a cry of help, it can just be a time to talk to someone whose not on a side."

Giselle nodded half aware of what she had agreed too.

It still didn't help the way she felt though.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Day of the Wedding. Mayor's Office. After the Song. Henry's Perspective.

The last of the music ringing in his ears Henry turned to see his Mom embrace Hook. Well it seemed there was no getting rid of the man now. Not that Henry had ever really wanted to.

But his mother had a strange look in her eye. She pulled away from Hook and seemed to be thinking hard about something. She nodded finally as if she had made her decision though Henry had no doubt what it was about. The house, the family had not been right for a couple of days. There was someone missing from it.

And just like that he knew what his mother was going to do.

"I'm gonna be right back" she said looking around. "You go and get ready for the wedding, I need to do something" She kissed Hook—Henry looked away.

"Consider it my wedding present" she whispered and then she was gone.

Henry sighed. Perhaps now was the time to talk Hook out of that monstrous white thing he was planning to wear.

* * *

Storybrooke. Two Hours Before the Wedding. Axel's Apartment. Emma's Perspective.

She knocked on the door once before Axel answered it looking like he had just climbed out of the shower with his towel slung over his shoulders. Emma carefully did not look down but allowed herself a moment to imagine what her soon to be husband's reaction would have been and had to bit down her grin.

"Look if your hear for a row" Axel said his eyes flashing and Emma was suddenly aware of how tall and strongly built he was. Zelena was right. Giselle would have been no match for him even if his anger had been an accident.

"No" she said holding up her hands. "I need to talk to her"

Giselle appeared around the corner her hair in a towel and Axel's shirt on. No doubt they had been showering together which meant they were probably sleeping together. Again Emma had to thank the gods Killian had not been with her when she had come here.

"I'm sorry" Emma said when she saw her. "You were right. My Mom should have never have said something like that. And we were being frauds. We have always believed in second chances. And I do understand why you wanted to be there for him even if you didn't tell him anything. He's your family just as much as Hook is and as for the stuff I said about Arthur…" She looked at Axel then.

"I'm sorry, I know what he was doing to both of you"

Giselle watched her for a second and then shrugged. "I suppose I shouldn't have said you didn't love Bae" she said finally. "I know you did. And I know you didn't string him along for the fun."

Emma nodded her heart still thudding with pain at the thought of her first love.

"Will you come to the wedding? It would mean a lot to your father, to me. This curse is gonna hit soon. You should be with your family. You and Axel both. Your family."

Axel shot a look between the two of them. Giselle nodded "Ok" she said smiling. "Emma—" she paused and Emma knew what she was trying to say.

"Forget it" she said shrugging. "I'm no more of a saint than you are. And more of a Daddy's girl. I get it I do. Room's free when you want to move in again"

Giselle beamed at her. Axel stared between the two of them for a second and then raised his eyes to the heavens saying something that sounded like. "Women"

* * *

Storybrooke. The Wedding. The Rooftop. Killian's Perspective.

"You look nice" said a voice behind him. He turned around heart in his throat and saw Giselle.

Standing there was his daughter. _She had come to his wedding._

And finally all was right in the world.

Giselle was dressed in a long yellow dress with a slit up the side. It was a long piece of bright yellow with no sleeves and boat like neckline. Her hair was loose but pinned back so waves of it were foaming down her back. Around her neck was the ring that he had given her and she had gold earrings with yellow stones. She was wearing the ring Axel had given her in Camelot. God he hoped that wasn't an engagement ring she was wearing on the wrong finger. He wasn't ready for a talk with the Dark One about who should walk their daughter up the aisle.

He wasn't sure if he was ever going to be ready for that conversation.

Axel had already taken a seat. He was dressed in dark pant and a nice grey shirt that made him look rather attractive. Half of Storybrooke's female population half of whom had come out for the free food were shooting him looks.

"You and Emma ok?"

"We buried the hatchet. And not in each other's skulls. You and father?"

Ah.

"Pretty much the same. Most of the hatchet anyway. And not in each other's skulls" he replied. He pulled her into a hug as the music started.

"Proud of you" he said into her hair.

"Right back at you" she said "So would mother you know. And I love you"

A few years ago this would have been an unattainable dream.

"Love you to" he said finally. As long as she wanted to hear those words from him and even when she didn't he was going to say them. Until his throat bled from saying them too much. Giselle smiled as they pulled apart and went to take her seat next to the man she loved.

And then Killian Jones. Captain Hook. The Pirate. Milah's Lover. Father of Giselle Jones. Brother. Son. Shipmate. Captain. Lieutenant. Villain. Hero, and all the other titles he had carried in his long life went to stand at the top of the archway of flowers and went to get married.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Rooftop. After the Wedding. Giselle's Perspective.

She had Axel on one side and her Dad on the other, her other father she knew was not far away. She was content. She was at peace. She was ready.

"You good?" Axel asked into her hair, his hands tight on her waist. She was gripping the arm above the hook with her other hand.

"Yeah" she whispered looking up at him. He kissed her once pressing their faces together. Giselle took a second longer before she turned to face the black mist coming towards her.

"See you on the other side" Axel said not a hint of fear in his voice.

The mist was coming closer.

Giselle smiled.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoy this and I will try and update as soon as I can.**

 **Next Chapter-** **The beginning of the end of this arc and this story-Giselle wakes up in a cursed land. Axel confront his demons as his own world comes crashing down around him and Killian must battle to reunite with both his wife and his daughter. Part One of this stories finale.**


	60. The Last Stand (I)

**Hi, so here is the penultimate chapter of this story and the first part of a two arc finale. I know there is not much action in this chapter but I worked through my notes and I didn't want a lot of action in this chapter at least not for Giselle. This was about finally learning to live with herself and the two halves of herself that still existed, Scarlett and Giselle. The conclusion was finally she learnt to hope and trust instead of being the same girl she was in Chapter 1 who believed everything she was told and didn't care either way what her future was like. This chapter and the next are the coming full circle of these events.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Giselle and Axel and Axel's family.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 60-The Last Stand (I)

The beginning of the end of this arc and this story-Giselle wakes up in a cursed land. Axel confront his demons as his own world comes crashing down around him and Killian must battle to reunite with both his wife and his daughter. Part One of this stories finale.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _And all I gave you is gone. Tumbled like it was stone. Thought we built a dynasty that heaven couldn't shake. Thought we build a dynasty like nothing ever made. Thought we build a dynasty forever couldn't break up."_** **(Song-Dynasty-Miia)**

The Enchanted Forest. Charming Castle. Killian's Perspective.

Killian Jones woke up in the Enchanted Forest.

He's had hangovers that have been easier to swallow than this. When he was forced awake it was by a banging headache and a pain in his leg that didn't bode well. He shuddered standing up to see his wedding suit gone, he was back in his pirate's garb but he still had his wedding ring which proved to him that the day and in all fairness the last few years of his life were not a dream.

He had found his daughter. He had found the second love of his life. He had married his wife. He had a long and happy future outlined for him and he was going to fight for it. That was something to cling too even though his head was throbbing. He cracked his neck from side to side taking in Regina who was already scowling at her entrance, and probably from being back in that corset thing. David who had taken the baby (thankfully unharmed) off his wife and Snow White who was clutching Regina by the arm. There was a pause where he stood there looking around and then he realised who was missing.

His wife, his daughter, his step-son and Axel. All the people that Killian cared about. Well Zelena and Belle and Gold were not here and he…well he liked Axel he wouldn't say care about him because…well it was his daughter but he didn't want the boy dead that was for.

Killian took a second to look around before panic began to settle.

"This was where we got married" David said quietly "Before we got cursed"

Oh wonderful. The parallels were stunning. There was a pause where he stood there and then Regina with a nod to herself, pulled herself out of her stepdaughters comforting arm and then stalked over to the mirror and began to demand answers.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Final Curse. Scarlett's Perspective.

Scarlett Gold woke up in Storybrooke.

She woke up to a grey overcast Tuesday and an empty house. Her father and brother must have gone to the shop to work on their latest repair to the display case and her grandmother must have gone to walk Henry her adopted Uncle to school. Henry had been running around doing all sorts lately. It was a shame Scarlett mused. He had been such a strange little boy. When he had been a child it had been oddly endearing.

Now it was just annoying.

She got dressed in silence. She wore a high collared dress with no sleeves and her high heels. She had long since stopped wearing boots…her grandmother had took them away when she had turned thirteen claiming that it was high time she learnt to walk and act like a lady. She tied her hair upwards—her grandmother hated it when she had it down and she set out to go into town to see what was going on.

Scarlett liked it when she was with her father and her brother. Her mother was dead and Gideon's mother who Scarlett could barely remember was long gone. Scarlett wished she could go too but her grandmother controlled this entire town and there was no way she could make it over the border without someone stopping her. Hell she didn't even know how to drive. Instead she confined herself to her schoolwork and her house. No friends, no boyfriends and only the things her grandmother—in the absence of her mother, the best person to raise a girl as she had put it—thought appropriate.

And that was how Scarlett Gold lived her life in the small little town called Storybrooke.

She ducked in through the back door to the back of the shop and then she sat down next to Gideon who was dressed all in black. He offered her a small smile but didn't speak. He didn't like to talk to her very often. Scarlett thought that it might be due to the fact that his mother had left her and hers had died however. There was a pause where she sat there and then she turned to her notebook and began to scribble in it. Gideon reached out so that their shoulders were touching. It gave a warmth to her even if her father was sat there.

They had never been close.

But she had never really minded. Because she had, had her brother.

She only dropped her book, kicking it under her table when the door opened and her grandmother came in. She did not approve of scribbling in journals. In fact her grandmother did not approve of anything Scarlett did. It was much better to be seen and not heard. Scarlett knew that her grandmother had been the one who had ensured Gideon had grown up without a mother. She was protective of the men in her family.

The women not so much. Scarlett knew it was only going to be a matter of time before she tried to get rid of her. Right now staying quiet and keeping her head down seemed easier rather than getting on the wrong side of the one woman who controlled all of Storybrooke with such an iron fist it made most of the dictator's in her history book seem weak and outdated.

She stood up feeling her fingers tremble even as she took a step back and hid in the shadows.

The shadows was the best place for Scarlett Gold after all.

It's not like she someone coming to her rescue was it?

* * *

The Enchanted Forest. Charming Castle. Killian's Perspective.

He was seething. He was so angry that for a second he thought he might actually have trouble speaking due to sheer rage. He forced himself to take a breath but that did no good whatsoever. All he wanted to do was climb through the mirror and be with his family. With Henry who was steadily losing hope, with Emma who had already lost it and with his daughter who had been a shell of the confident girl turned to a strong woman he had met on his ship.

All Killian wanted to do was be with his family.

And he knew there and then that he had been kidding himself when he had tried to tell himself that when he had first arrived in Storybrooke, that he could stay in the shadows and wait for Giselle to come to him. She had come to him but now he knew that he would go to her, every time, each and every time he would go to his daughter's side because living without Emma was hard. Without her thought…his world may as well turn to grey ash and blow away on the wind.

Right now Regina was spelling out the plan. The battle was for Emma's belief. He was staring at the dark void that used to be Oz. Wonderland would be next, Elsa and Anna's kingdom next, and the Land of Untold Stories following it. All of the realms who had homes and people in them who had done nothing wrong but not know about the Land Without Magic or Storybrooke or the very existence of people like Emma Swan and Giselle Jones or that they were Killian Jones whole world. To the Black Fairy one was a pawn in the big game and one was the end game. The only way she could win the Final Battle.

David was trying to think of a plan that would take them back. Nobody least of all Regina wanted to think the entirety of breaking the curse depended on Henry Mills and the side of him that believed in hope. But then again as Snow White had pointed out—it had worked before.

It was Zelena who had crushed that little bit of hope. She had been busy helping the people who had come through Oz and Wonderland. Most specifically instructing Will Scarlett, a blonde woman who had all the makings of a queen, a woman called Alice and her husband to ensure that everyone was with the right realms least everyone get confused especially the children who had come through alone and looked scared.

Elsa and Anna were not there but a teenager with snow on her shoulders told them that they were still evacuating as the snow had only just started to melt. Zelena had rolled her eyes as she had turned into the conversation that they were having—or more specifically that the Charming's and Regina were having.

"Yes but before he was going up against his mother. Not a woman who wasn't afraid to pull punches. This is the Black Fairy were talking about. And Henry is not some ten year old anymore. It's not like he can eat a piece of posion pie anymore"

Killian opened his mouth to ask why Henry had ate posion pie but the look on Regina's face was so fierce he reconsidered it.

Instead he clenched his fist and tried to pretend that his heart wasn't breaking. At this point even David's madcap plan to climb a beanstalk seemed like a good idea.

This was his family. The family that he had only just got. He would be damned if some relation of Gold's with a grudge was going to take it from him now.

* * *

Storybrooke. The Final Curse. Scarlett's Perspective.

In hindsight she had not meant to listen into the conversation. Henry Mills-Gold the kid of her grandmother had stormed into the shop and nearly forced Giselle to the floor in fear had started banging about curses. She had listened quietly and then slipped out the door. She had no idea what was going on. Henry might be mad—God knows with his mother in the Storybrooke Asylum that might be more believable as opposed to the truth but she found she couldn't shake off the thought that there might be something to it. It made her pause.

A long time ago Scarlett had wanted someone to come and take her away and she had thought once about a curse. But that had been in the metaphorical sense rather than the actual sense. Maybe Henry was mad.

And who the hell was Giselle?

But no…questions like that were better left alone. Should her grandmother get a hold that she was thinking like that she was going to be in the same padded cell next to Emma Swan. She knew who she was. She was Scarlett Gold. She was not some sort of 'Pirate's Daughter'. She was the daughter of Mr Gold, the sister of the departed, Neal Gold and the very much alive, Gideon Gold. She was the granddaughter of Fiona Gold.

There was nothing magical.

And her name was Scarlett. She knew nobody called Giselle.

And she certainly didn't know no Hook or Killian.

Curses. Henry was clearly going he same way as his mother.

* * *

'The Realm of the Wendigo's'. Axel's Perspective.

He knew where he was the second he opened his eyes. The memories, the emotions were so strong he had to close them again against the burning of his eyelids. The smell of smoke had gone, the screaming in his ears had gone. He was lying in the ruins of his home and he didn't want to wake up and see it again but he knew he had to.

Giselle was gone. His family was gone. His life was in ruins.

And finally Axel opened his eyes.

He was in the room he had been in when he had first seen his parents. Arthur had set his house on fire and had waited. His mother and father had been the first to die. They had dragged them out of his house and he had killed them.

He had gone to Nikolai then. His older brother. He had already pulled Alexander out of his bed. His seven year old little brother who had been trembling. The three of them had huddled their under Nikolai's bed and they had held onto each other until the last second.

Arthur had dragged them apart and when Axel had woken up he was chained and alone.

And he had had no hope. Until her. Until Giselle.

 _'_ _You'd like her'_ he said in his head staring at the broken burnt timbers. He was talking to Nikolai. His big brother, his best friend and his worst enemy. The true paradox in his life. He would have liked Giselle. She'd have taken no shit from his big brother.

 _'_ _Oh I know that'_ said the voice in his head. The only problem was when he looked to where it was coming he could see his brother. The world shook underneath him and Axel could only think that if the Realm of the Wendigo's, empty or almost due to the attempts of one man to prove himself, was finally crashing down around him then he was fine right where he was.

Soon he would be his family.

 _'_ _Good Gods above Axel how depressing have you become? Your alive are you not? You have a life in that town don't you? Go and live it with the leggy brunette who you are so out of your league with'_

Axel grinned closing his eyes and listening to the sound of his older brother's voice in his head as the end of his realm and the end of his life came.

 _'_ _Axel!'_ Nikolai shouted and Axel opened his eyes turning to where the image of his brother was sat on the corner of a charred bit of wood that might have been his family's dinner table. His brother offered him a smile. Axel felt the tears in his eyes.

 _'_ _Please'_ he said in his head. _'Please let me go Nik. I want to be with you and Alex and mother and father. Please'_

There was another rumble and the slamming of something outside what had once been his home. He looked up at the sky and then sat up as if it was costing him more and more for every second he fought back.

 _'_ _Come on Axe.'_ His brother said quietly. _'Someone's gotta live out of all of this. Someone has to build a life. And if I cannot be with that leggy brunette then I don't know what the hell you've been doing since you arrived in that strange town with all the things…'_

Axel stood up. His whole body was throbbing almost with loss. He forced himself to move out of his house and it seemed with every step that he took he was able to breathe a lot easier. His house, his home and his memories in the place were going to go when the realm went. But he was not going to die with it. He had survived this long.

 _'_ _Damn right you are'_ his brother said in his head as he approached the door. There was nobody else in this realm, Arthur had hunted the 'danger' into extinction and he was suddenly aware that he was perhaps the last of his kind.

Arthur was not going to claim, dead or alive that he had wiped out the Wendigo's. Camelot was going to burn for the sins of their King. One way or the other. Perhaps he might not sack the great city like those in the books he had read. But he was alive. For Arthur, who had started a genocide against his kind for the simple fact that he wanted to prove himself to his knights.

He stood up listening to his brother's words of encouragement in his head. He made it to the door just as the voice disappeared and the world that he had once known fell around him. He tipped into the black void and then he slammed into something hard his eyes still closed and his chest still heaving as if he had ran an marathon.

 _'_ _Well done baby brother'_ his big brother said in his head and then he was gone and Axel opened his eyes to see Regina Mills looking at him as if he was insane and her red headed sister looking at him as if she had no idea who he was, (considering the amount of people who were standing around her there might be something to that) he scrambled up about to ask what the hell was going on when suddenly he forced himself to his feet.

Killian Jones was in front of him then the second he stood up but Axel didn't have even a moment to ask him what the hell was going before the room they were in shook, the world went black again and he woke up to the smell of a damp street and the woman that he loved looking at him.

Was it too soon to tell her that?

* * *

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

Perhaps it was, for the second time in her life being Scarlett Gold that allowed Giselle Jones some perspective. Her stepmother and her friend…the first real friend she had ever had was busy swinging a sword with her brother both of them desperate to end the battle they had both been on for so long. They had been doing this for too long.

She had thought once upon a time that it would be her father who would be doing this. She had thought once upon a time it would have been any other of the villains they had faced or even Emma Swan herself that would be doing this. She had thought, once upon a time that it would be her that was snuffing out the light for good. It was funny the way life continued to surprise her.

She leaned against Axel trying not to look. She didn't want to see her brother die, she didn't want to see Emma die. She didn't want to see the looks that would pass on either one of her father's faces when they lost either their lover or child which for both of them would be for the second time in their incredibly long lifetimes.

But she had been Scarlett Gold again. She had, had a chance to be the girl that she had once known.

And now she had said goodbye to her. Properly. The girl she had once been had been a figment of a curse that could have gone any other way. Scarlett was gone, Giselle was still alive but the two ghosts she had lived with for so long were finally at peace. Scarlett was her with a different set of memories. Scarlett had loved books, Giselle loved books, Scarlett had been a passionate defender of her parent. So was Giselle. Scarlett had been Mr Gold's daughter, she had also been Killian Jones.

So was Giselle.

She was both. Dead or alive the two girls had fought each other inside her for years. Giselle had wanted her father, Mr Gold and had not wanted to open her eyes to see that there might be another parent out there, Giselle had wanted adventure and the freedom to be loved and to love and her family surrounding her. Scarlett had wanted nothing but peace and her father.

This person she was now, after too many curses and too many heartbreaks and too many rows was a mixture of both. It was as David Nolan had once said one clear day where everyone had been scared.

 _"_ _We Are Both"_

If the situation had been anything less serious she would have laughed. A Charming coming up with the solution.

Perhaps there was something to them after all.

And then it was over.

Emma went down like she had lived with a bang, like a light, like a saviour. Gideon went in a puff of black smoke but Giselle's stomach was not in knots. She was not panicking even as Axel wrapped an arm around her bright yellow dress. Because finally after a long time…she understood.

She _trusted._

She _hoped._

And Emma lived.

True Loves Kiss and all.

Emma turned to her once she had pulled herself away from her family. Axel's arm was still tight around her and the two woman who had only a day ago been embroiled in a bitter fight stared at each other. The two woman who had been friends a long time before they had been anything else, before they knew the part they were to play in each other's lives stared at each other.

It was impossible to say who moved first.

And then they were hugging like nothing had ever happened.

"Emma Swan" Emma said into her hair and Giselle knew what she was thinking about. The first time they had met all those curses ago.

"Giselle Scarlett Jones" she said finally.

Emma laughed.

"Women" Axel muttered as her Dad clapped him on the shoulder.

They pulled apart and she turned to Axel who looked shaken but alive.

"You good?" she asked him.

Axel smiled.

"You want to find your father?" he asked quietly.

"No" Giselle said smiling. "I trust he's ok. With Belle, with my brother."

"You have hope?" Axel asked eyebrows raised as Snow White talked.

Giselle shrugged smiling. "Seems so" she said turning. She caught her Dad's eye and he winked at her his face full of love. She grinned back and she leant into Axel's arms thinking as Snow White talked about love and hope and stuff she would have once scoffed about, that she might like to go to Granny's and order a pumpkin spice latte and a bacon sandwich and then go find a bed, any bed really and have a nice long sleep the kind she had not had in a while.

Personally, Giselle thought she might have had enough trouble for a lifetime.

* * *

 **Next Chapter-The final chapter of this story! Part Two of this stories finale. Giselle, Killian and Rumple adjust to their new normal now that the Final Battle is over and they begin to live their lives in peace.**

 **And I will try and have the next chapter up as soon as it is written.**


	61. Paradise Regained (II)

**Hi, so here is the FINAL CHAPTER!**

 **I never thought that I would get to the end of this story after exactly two years writing it. But I did and the thanks and praise lies entirely at the door of my incredible readers and reviewers who have given me the courage and the strength to continue this story throughout six seasons of OUAT. Nor did I think that I would write over 200K of words but I have and all of that is down to the support and the kind words that you have given over the course of this story. Without reviews this story would have ended a long time ago. So thank you.**

 **This is not gonna be my last story, I love this fandom, I love the characters, and until you guys who love OUAT as much as I do get sick of me I am going to keep writing for this incredible fandom.**

 **And again any spelling and grammar issues are my own so if there are any inaccuracies then I apologise in advance.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine in this chapter.**

 **Please Read and Review for the final chapter and let me know what you think of the conclusion to this story.**

* * *

Paradise Lost

Chapter 61-Paradise Regained.

Part Two of this stories finale. Giselle, Killian and Rumple adjust to their new normal now that the Final Battle is over and they begin to live their lives in peace.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Of paradise so late, their happy seat. The world was all before them where to choose. Their place of rest and Providence their guide: They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow. Through Eden took their solitary way"_** **(Paradise Lost, Poem-John Milton)**

Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective.

When she woke up that morning, nearly a year after the Final Battle she lay there awake for a long time. She never got up early preferring to sleep in but she watched through her curtains as the sunlight grew stronger and the birds began chirping, probably having their morning chat with Snow White.

She listened to them for a second and then she sat up. She had spent the night at her father's. Rumple and Belle had been more than happy to let her spend the night. Axel was busy moving into his new apartment now that he finally had enough money under his belt where he didn't have to skulk about in that tiny hole above the library. Not to mention too many children had caught them in the lift in various stages of undress and slightly drunk when both the LSAT results for Axel and her college acceptances came in post her Finals for the town to be completely comfortable with.

There was a pause where she sat up and ran her hands over her face reaching for her hair brush. Her hair was now back to It's original length and she had outgrown her bangs. Considering it had been a year since the Final Battle she had changed again, her style, her life, her hair.

It felt nice to go back to the beginning.

The town had changed too. All of the people from the Land of Untold Stories had finally settled down and everything had gone back to normal. Things were finally calming down. Henry was back at school. Ruby and Dorothy had moved back to town. Zelena had been there smiling for Robyn's first day at day-care.

The Charming's had moved out of that apartment that had been central to them for a long time. They had rented it out to Will Scarlett, his wife and their two best friends who were living out of it like it was some sort of college dorm. They had gone to a little farm house in the corner of the woods and David tended the farm while his wife taught the younger kids much like she had done with the older children. Teachers were back in school and everything had settled back to normal. They had Emma, they had Neal and now Giselle was willing to bet that tonight she would be upstaged by the announcement that Snow White was pregnant again.

Once upon a time that kind of information would have irritated her but she had long ago given up her impulses of being irritated. Oh there were still things that frustrated her but Giselle had not seen the Charming's as the enemy for a long time. She had seen them as friends. Archie had been helpful in that. For the first four months after the battle she had gone to see him and speak to him. Archie didn't counsel her that much but he did listen and he didn't judge and it felt good to offload the emotions and the thoughts that had been dragging her down since she had been a teenager. The night she had changed for good was that night when she had lost her home and her father for the first time and had taken Max and gone riding to try and determine who she was.

She had a pretty good idea who she was now.

She dressed in a dark purple dress that came to her knees and her dark high heeled ankle boots that she had stolen out of the back of Emma's closet. The boots were Prada and she had worn them when she had been the Dark One and Giselle was willing to bet that she hadn't bought them either so in reality it was a win-win. She tried to tie up her hair but the dark waves were still as untameable as ever and she decided eventually to just leave it loose. She was still wearing Axel's ring that he had told her had been his mother's and the only thing he had managed to reach as Arthur had dragged him away from his brothers and her Dad's ring that she had been given for her seventeenth. For her eighteenth birthday her Dad had gifted her a rather nice set of gold earrings that were solid long strips until you go to the end where there were pearls all down the side. Her father had gifted her with a gold bracelet that was an open bracelet with diamonds clustered together at the edges. They had both spent money on her, Giselle got the impression they had both enjoyed it. They were also doubling up as presents for today.

For today was no ordinary day.

Today Giselle Jones was graduating High School.

* * *

She came downstairs to find the coffee pot already brewing next to Belle's teapot that still had steam coming out. Gideon was in his high chair. The look on his face was very different to the Gideon she had once given her Harry Potter books. Right now he was covered in cornflakes and her two year old brother was looking rather put out as if he would have rather used his magic to give himself ice cream for breakfast. Giselle personally was glad the fireball throwing stage was over but a part of her had been amused because…Belle's choice of curtains were hideous.

Axel was going to meet them at the school but as Giselle buttoned up her jacket she took a look at herself in the mirror. It was hard to reconcile the girl she had once been, angry and bitter with the world and everyone in it with the person that she had become now.

Happy.

Her Dad and his family were meeting them at the school as well. Snow White and the Principal a man who had once been the teacher who had taught Elsa and Anna who had come to Storybrooke and had promptly fallen in love with another teacher who happened to be Will Scarlett's best friend Cyrus's brother. Truly when you stayed in Storybrooke longer than seven months you knew everyone and everyone knew you.

This would be the second graduation class that Storybrooke had seen. There had been too many disruptions to the town for anything before that and now they were finally back to normal. Giselle swallowed smoothing down her hair in the car.

"No need to be nervous" her father said once Belle had disentangled Gideon from his car chair and he had come around the side of the car sliding an arm around her. She leaned into his body like she had done so many times.

"I am so proud of you my girl" he said into her hair. "Come on. Let's go an get your diploma"

Giselle smiled at him and then followed him through the door into her old High School.

"You going to be ok making a potion so I will remember _all_ of you when Axel and I leave the town in a few months?" she asked finally. There was an emphasis on all that made the corner of her father's mouth quirk up.

"I have brewed up some potions. Though why you and Axel want to go travelling as soon as he gets into a law school goes above me. Where have the two of you decided to start?"

"Australia" Giselle said shortly. Her father snorted once as if he thought Australia was a rather dodgy place for his daughter to go travelling with her boyfriend. Giselle knew it was really because he was jealous but the thought of her father rubbing sunscreen on himself as he sat on Bondi Beach was enough to make her shudder with horror.

"Sorry" said a loud voice next to her and she turned to see Emma Swan her red leather jacket thrown over her pink dress that she had worn to the occasion come running down the parking lot. Her father turned his face away so that nobody could see him roll his eyes apart from Belle which Giselle thought might be progress if nothing else.

Her Dad was following Emma, Henry running along after them and the Charming's bringing up the rear. Snow White was already inside but David and the now toddling Neal were coming. Her Dad was holding her six month old baby sister Hope Margaret Jones.

"Hey" she said hugging him. Her Dad (looking rather nice in a pair of navy trousers and a nice dark blue shirt—clearly letting Emma control his wardrobe was a good thing). Henry was in a nice white shirt and good jeans and she saw over her shoulder little Roland, hand in hand with Regina who was in red wave at her as they walked into the hall.

"You look lovely darling" her Dad said hugging her. "Wow. Graduating. Told you, you were smart enough to graduate with honours" He beamed but Giselle had a funny feeling that he had asked Emma what it was to graduate with honours before they had come today.

"Come on Giselle" her father said in a tone that was controlled and Giselle knowing that Axel (who hated family reunions due to his own lack—and she knew most of his energy would go on surviving the dinner at Granny's tonight) would be inside.

* * *

They were all there she noted as she sat down with her cap and gown. Not just her family, her two father's, her two stepmothers but Regina, Zelena, Robyn and Roland, Leroy and the rest of the dwarves, Granny and Ruby, Whale and Tink, Blue, Archie, August now young again and his father, and all the other fairy's. Axel leaning against the wall winking at her when he saw her. Will Scarlett and his Wonderland friend and everyone else who had meant something to her and the people around her. The Town had pulled together to be there and Giselle had to look away for a second.

Somethings had never changed it seemed.

She was still Giselle Jones. She was still Milah's daughter. She was still not a woman who was to be overcome by a sentimental moment.

"Jones. S. Giselle" Snow White said, and Giselle stood up to collect her diploma. It was then that she turned the parchment in her hands. This was it, this was the end of the journey that she had started that day she had come home from school wondering if Henry was going to live and then the gust of wind blew her back to the present. There was a pause where she looked at her family, at both of her father's who did seem to be somewhat overcome when they saw her get her diploma. Giselle grinned and then turned her tassel over to take her seat with her other classmates.

She grinned. She had done it. She had graduated.

Something made Giselle turned to look at the door. And it was then that she saw it.

Bae.

Bae was leaning against the wall his arms crossed watching her. Her older brother was leaning against the wall in a sort of spirit form, Giselle, stared at him for a second wondering weather or not this was a figment of her imagination. For a second brother and sister stared at each other, Bae winked looking at her with nothing but love in his eyes and Giselle smiled back because weather or not this was a vision or a hallucination or anything else, this was still her brother.

Bae grinned at her and then someone walked past her blocking off her sight. When the person had gone Giselle craned her neck to see the spot where her brother had once stood but he had gone.

But he had been there.

And that was all that mattered.

She climbed off the stage to a hug and a rather enthusiastic snog from Axel. There was a pause where she stood there pulling apart. The second they did she was engulfed in so many hugs, her Dad, her father, Belle, Emma, Henry, Snow, Charming, Regina, Zelena, Leroy, Granny Roland crashing into her legs with a grin. So many of her family had been there. She had gone from having nobody to having the whole town on her side. They had been there from the beginning she had just not seen it.

Once they had pulled apart Emma handing baby Hope to Henry held out a camera and started snapping until Giselle felt like she was going blind. But she had not gotten the one thing that she wanted.

"Father" she said smiling. "Dad" she said turning to Killian and they both turned to her.

"Picture?" she asked hopefully. Axel smothered a laugh and Henry looked as if he thought she was asking for a near miracle. But the image of her brother's face was still fresh in her mind and she wanted a photo with both of her parents.

Both looked as if they wanted to refuse her but considering they were in the company of their scarier wives they acquired. Giselle felt both of them come to stand next to her their hands curled around their waist. They took the picture and Giselle smiled as she saw they both let go of the small of her back where their fingertips had been touching extremely quickly.

"Thanks" Giselle said grinning. Somethings would never change.

* * *

At Granny's diner that night she sat in between both of her father's. Axel was in an animated chat with her stepmother (Emma) and Regina, about the legal system and weather or not there was a place at the now somewhat dilapidated law firm that the old mad King George had once owned.

Giselle smiled sitting down next to her family. She had her fathers, she had her brother, she had her family surrounding her and for the first time since the day Emma Swan had arrived the world seemed at peace.

That was no small matter for Giselle. Peace.

As Snow White had said and for once Giselle might have agreed with even if she wasn't going to agree with it publicly, this was her happy beginning, as well as a happy ending.

It was both. She was both.

Paradise had once been lost. For both of her father's, for her. For the three of them now in this little crazy world they had built for themselves. Now it was almost like Paradise Regained.

Yeah that was right. She felt her father's eyes on her, her Dad's hand on her wrist. Both their pride radiating from them as her family and her love chatted and laughed around them and a future was mapped out for her free of death and darkness and fear.

Yeah, Paradise Regained.

Giselle Jones was content. All was finally good.

And she supposed, (and she hoped) they lived happily ever after.

* * *

 **And let me know what you thought, this is the end of Giselle Jones story but I hope there will be more OUAT stories to come, their is no next chapter following this chapter so I will end this story with a massive thank you to all of you for all the support you have given me over the course of this long story. Words cannot describe the gratitude but all I can say is thank you. **

**I hope to see you soon when I come back to this fandom until then...Enjoy this chapter and this story. **


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